noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   plural of ground form-of, plural
2. 2
   Basis or justification for something.

   "grounds for divorce"

3. 3
   The sediment at the bottom of a liquid, or from which a liquid has been filtered. plural, plural-only

   "coffee grounds"

4. 4
   the enclosed land around a house or other building wordnet
5. 5
   The collective land areas that compose a larger area.

   "the castle grounds"

Show 4 more definitions

6. 6
   your basis for belief or disbelief; knowledge on which to base belief wordnet
7. 7
   a justification for something existing or happening wordnet
8. 8
   a tract of land cleared for some special purposes (recreation or burial etc.) wordnet
9. 9
   dregs consisting of solid particles (especially of coffee) that form a residue wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   third-person singular simple present indicative of ground form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person

Synonyms

All synonyms

causeevidenceacresalluvionalluviumantecedent

Example

More examples

"You have no grounds for accusing Jill of stealing the stock certificates."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From ground (“basis, surroundings”).

Etymology 2

From ground, past participle of to grind.

Related phrases

grounds officerstomping groundscoffee grounds

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.