gut
noun
the alimentary canal, especially between the pylorus and the anus, or some portion of it.
gut
1 American
[guht]
/ gʌt /
noun
-
guts
plural
-
the alimentary canal, especially between the pylorus and the anus, or some portion of it.
-
guts,
-
bowels or entrails.
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Informal. courage and fortitude; nerve; determination; stamina.
Climbing that cliff takes a lot of guts.
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the inner working parts of a machine or device.
The mechanic had the guts of the refrigerator laid out on the kitchen floor.
-
-
the belly; stomach; abdomen.
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the substance forming the case of the intestine; intestinal tissue or fiber.
sheep's gut.
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a preparation of the intestines of an animal, used for various purposes, as for violin strings, tennis rackets, or fishing lines.
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the silken substance taken from a silkworm killed when about to spin its cocoon, used in making snells for fishhooks.
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a narrow passage, as a channel of water or a defile between hills.
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Slang. Also gut course snap course.
verb (used with object)
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guts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gutted,
past participle, past
-
gutting
present participle
-
to take out the guts or entrails of; disembowel.
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to destroy the interior of.
Fire gutted the building.
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to plunder (a house, city, etc.) of contents.
Invaders gutted the village.
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to remove the vital or essential parts from.
The prisoner's letters were gutted by heavy censorship.
adjective
idioms
GUT
2
American
Physics.
gut
1
British
/ ɡʌt /
noun
-
-
the lower part of the alimentary canal; intestine
-
the entire alimentary canal
-
-
(often plural) the bowels or entrails, esp of an animal
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slang the belly; paunch
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See catgut
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a silky fibrous substance extracted from silkworms, used in the manufacture of fishing tackle
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a narrow channel or passage
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informal (plural) courage, willpower, or daring; forcefulness
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informal (plural) the essential part
the guts of a problem
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informal to make an intense effort
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informal to be extremely angry with someone
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informal to dislike a person very strongly
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informal to work very hard
verb
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to remove the entrails from (fish, etc)
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(esp of fire) to destroy the inside of (a building)
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to plunder; despoil
the raiders gutted the city
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to take out the central points of (an article), esp in summary form
adjective
GUT
2
British
/ ɡʌt /
acronym
gut
1
Scientific
/ gŭt /
-
The intestine of a vertebrate animal.
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The alimentary canal of an invertebrate animal.
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The tube in a vertebrate embryo that later develops into the alimentary canal, lungs, and liver.
GUT
2
Scientific
gut
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gutsimple
-
gutssimple
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have guttedperfect
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has guttedperfect
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am guttingprogressive
-
are guttingprogressive
-
is guttingprogressive
-
have been guttingperfect progressive
-
has been guttingperfect progressive
Past
-
guttedsimple
-
had guttedperfect
-
was guttingprogressive
-
were guttingprogressive
-
had been guttingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gut
First recorded before 1000; Middle English gut, guttes (plural), Old English guttas (plural), akin to gēotan “to pour”
Explanation
Your gut is part of your digestive system — it's where food goes after you eat it, to get broken down into nutrients and waste. The expression to "go with your gut" means to follow your instincts, how you feel in your belly. Your gut is quite literally your intestines, although the word is frequently used for any part of your digestive system, especially your stomach. Eating too much ice cream can give you an ache in your gut. When gut is a verb, it means to clean the internal organs out of a fish or other animal you intend to eat, or to completely empty a building. Colloquially, if you have guts, you're very brave.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Phenylpropionate and hippuric acid are produced when bacteria process phenylalanine, and they are associated with gut health and healthy body weight.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Tepache, a fermented Mexican pineapple beverage that has recently gone mass-market, is another drink with purported wellness benefits that include gut health.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
"We think Prifs represent an emerging class of dietary nutrients that shape the composition of the gut microbiome and could have a far-reaching influence on metabolic health," said AbuSalim.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Prif increased the amount of dietary protein that reached gut microbes, giving them more material to produce the beneficial phenols.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
My gut twisted at the sound of impact.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
“You manage a baseball game with your EYES, HEART, & GUT as well as your BRAIN,” Blevins posted.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2020
If the GUT approach is right, the average decay time in question is far longer than the age of the universe itself.
From Economist ● Jan. 11, 2018
The model of the car was unknown, according to the police call, but its plates included the letters and numbers GUT 18053.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 15, 2015
This transition from GUT to electroweak is an example of spontaneous symmetry breaking, in which conditions spontaneously evolved to a point where the forces were no longer unified, breaking that symmetry.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
In Austrian spy-letters, now and afterwards, they are described to us as "GUT PREUSSISCH;" "strong for Prussia, the most of them, even in Dresden itself."
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 17 by Thomas Carlyle
Motherwell, so easy on the eye last season, have had their guts ripped out in the summer and are also rebuilding, albeit playing with the same easy style as before.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Tom Holland is officially the first “Hot Ones” guest to really spill his guts during a spicy interview.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Our children may need the grit and guts of the pioneers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Now rate cuts are on hold, and as the rise in wholesale prices show, there’s still plenty of inflation in the guts of the economy that’s likely to show up later in the year.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026
Like subways and guts and pigeons don’t belong together.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Friday that Britain must face up to the changing climate and accelerate its move to clean energy as he visited a town where a wildfire gutted homes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Managing to survive two wars, a decapitated leadership, gutted air and naval defenses, weakened proxies and a spiraling economy have allowed it to play a weak hand strongly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
But such a move could undermine California’s years-long effort to rebuild the court reporter profession after it was gutted amid the state’s judicial budget crisis in 2012, labor leaders said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Teams of human moderators once employed by all the major platforms have been gutted.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
They made camp before the remnants of a gutted palace, on a windswept plaza where devilgrass grew between the paving stones.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
In “Tin Can Coast,” Joseph Ogilvy explores the poetry and the beauty of this coastal world, the marine creatures who live within it, as well as the practices that are gutting it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Damon’s Odysseus is numbed by the massacre of Troy’s civilians; Fiennes’ hates himself for leading the best men of Ithaca to their death, gutting his own community in the heedless destruction of another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
“When you actually look at the totality of what’s being put forward, we are seeing a total gutting of a resource base,” she told NOTUS.
From Slate ● May 2, 2026
“I know intimately how gutting it is to be a borrower, just sitting on the phone with a loan servicer as you try to navigate your options,” she said.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026
“After you gut a few thousand chickens,” Galen said dryly, “you’ll either get really good at it, or you’ll stop gutting chickens.”
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
