gumption
Americannoun
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initiative; aggressiveness; resourcefulness.
With his gumption he'll make a success of himself.
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courage; spunk; guts.
It takes gumption to quit a high-paying job.
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Chiefly British Dialect. common sense; shrewdness.
noun
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common sense or resourcefulness
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initiative or courage
you haven't the gumption to try
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gumption
1710–20; originally Scots
Explanation
If you have gumption, you have guts. People with gumption are determined and full of courage — and common sense, too. If you easily give up, and don't have a lot of confidence or smarts, then you are lacking in gumption. It takes gumption to get things done — especially difficult things. Someone who takes risks without being afraid has gumption. Having gumption is like having "chutzpah." We all could probably use more gumption. Like common sense, it isn't that common.
Vocabulary lists containing gumption
Beowulf
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
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The Glass Castle
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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.
"Nobody had the gumption to say they are the right people," O'Shea recalls of the Lancaster-led group.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
And who better to teach a down-and-out lawyer about courage and gumption than a coyote who has persevered in the face of certain failure?
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
“If you have an idea, and the gumption enough to go for it, you can probably find an audience for it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
It takes gumption to walk away from a lucrative job and grit to build a startup, but don’t mistake those qualities for self-assuredness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
We looked like Dorothy's Kansas friends in The Wizard Of Oz and we admired Tom Edison and his good old gumption and stick-to-it-iveness.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
