chutzpah
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of chutzpah
C20: from Yiddish
Explanation
Chutzpah means fearlessness. It takes chutzpah to stand in front of the whole class and announce that you are a better writer than William Shakespeare. Chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning "impudence or gall." Bravery that borders on rudeness is chutzpah, which rhymes with "foot spa." If you have chutzpah, you say what you think without worrying about hurting someone's feelings, looking silly, or getting in trouble. A display of chutzpah is meant to make a statement, like the chutzpah of the girl who shaves her head in protest of impossible beauty standards.
Vocabulary lists containing chutzpah
Hidden Figures
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Scrabble: High Scoring Words
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Into the Wild
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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.
Chutzpah is really far too kind a word for it.
From Slate • Nov. 29, 2023
We’re at the Chutzpah Deli in Fairfax Towne Center and the chutzpah is so thick you could cut it with a knife then smear it on a bagel.
From Washington Post • Sep. 27, 2022
She also brought other women together to train, and formed what she says she now realises was Sweden's first female hip-hop dance group, Chutzpah Crew.
From BBC • Jul. 31, 2021
“If anyone has the Chutzpah to make it a film, I hope they cast me.”
From Seattle Times • Oct. 16, 2020
But it took a great deal to overawe Solomon, who, with the national humor, possessed the national Chutzpah, which is variously translated enterprise, audacity, brazen impudence and cheek.
From Children of the Ghetto A Study of a Peculiar People by Zangwill, Israel
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.
