Grok (English)

Where does "Grok" come from?

The word 'Grok' originated in Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel 'Stranger in a Strange Land' as a Martian term meaning to understand something so thoroughly that it becomes a part of oneself. It was later adopted by computer programmers to describe deep, intuitive technical understanding before being repurposed to name the generative AI chatbot developed by xAI.

Updated June 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris