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Glite Dictionary
to take for granted

to take for granted

171 4.1
To believe something is true without checking it
  • phrasal verb
  • /teɪk fɔr ˈgræn.tɪd/
  • Informal
translation icon : dar por sentado
  • Many people take for granted the air they breathe every day.
  • people take for granted
  • most people take for granted
  • often take for granted

I think a lot of people kind of take for granted that that's a true thing.

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Examples

  • We all take autonomy for granted.

    They Cloned Tyrone (2023)

  • Never take for granted the greatest power of all.

    Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

  • You know why they took their spot for granted, right?

    GaryVee

  • We did just sort of took it for granted back then.

    Gregory B. Sadler - That Philosophy Guy

  • And I think people will take that practice for granted for sure.

  • All the things that we take for granted in the West, right?

  • And please do not take that for granted, OK?

  • It's easy to take for granted the power and the value of something.

  • But time is something that young people take for granted.

    In Other Words (2020)

  • People look up at the sun, then take it for granted as they continue their tasks.

    Fiction book (1994)

Synonyms

to assume
vsto take for granted
∞ 3.2

Think something is true without proof

is to accept without questioning or verifying it
to presume
vsto take for granted
136 4.9

To suppose something is true without proof

is to accept without questioning or verifying it
to take at face value
vsto take for granted
18 4.5

Believe something is true without checking it

is to accept without questioning or verifying it
to take on faith
vsto take for granted
1 7.1

To believe something without proof

is to accept without questioning or verifying it

Antonyms

to question
777 3.5

To express doubt about whether something is true

to verify
251 3.5

To make sure something is true or correct

How Attentive

to verify
251 3.5
to notice
∞ 1.0
to take for granted
  • Informal
171 4.1
to overlook
243 2.9
to ignore
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

take for granted infinitive
taking for granted present participle
takes for granted third person singular
took for granted past
taken for granted past participle

Morphology

take + for + granted

The sense 'to accept or assume something without questioning' is partially recoverable because 'take' (accept) and 'granted' (acknowledged) point toward accepting something as given, but the idiomatic pattern 'take for granted' is not a strictly literal composition and the precise pragmatic sense requires familiarity. Cross-linguistic equivalents (e.g., Spanish 'dar por sentado') make the idea somewhat predictable, yet a B1 learner who only knows the single-word meanings may not fully infer the expression's nuance and usage without prior exposure.

Etymology

Take for granted comes from the older meaning of the word 'grant' as 'to give', so if you take something that is granted you act as if it is already given. That's why it means 'to accept or assume something without asking or checking'.