kiasu

[ kee-ah-soo, kee-uh-soo ]

adjective
  1. self-serving, competitive, or greedy: parents who are kiasu about their children’s education.

noun
  1. Also ki·a·su·ism . a kiasu mindset.

Origin of kiasu

1
First recorded in 1975–80; from dialectal Chinese (Southern Min, Fujian): literally, “fear of losing or of losing out”; introduced into standard English by speakers of Singaporean English

Words Nearby kiasu

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024