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gung-ho

American  
[guhng-hoh] / ˈgʌŋˈhoʊ /

adjective

  1. wholeheartedly enthusiastic and loyal; eager; zealous.

    a gung-ho military outfit.

adverb

  1. in a successful manner.

    The business is going gung-ho.
gung ho British  
/ ɡʌŋ həʊ /

adjective

  1. extremely enthusiastic and enterprising, sometimes to excess

  2. extremely keen to participate in military combat

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
gung-ho Cultural  

  1. Extremely enthusiastic or zealous: “He was gung-ho about going on a vacation to the beach.”

gung ho Idioms  

  1. Also, gung-ho. Extremely enthusiastic or dedicated, as in She was gung ho about her new job. This expression was introduced in 1942 as a training slogan for a U.S. Marine battalion, derived from what an American officer thought were Mandarin Chinese words for “work together.” It was actually an abbreviation for the name of Chinese industrial cooperatives.

Etymology

Origin of gung-ho

Introduced as a training slogan in 1942 by U.S. Marine officer Evans F. Carlson (1896–1947), from Chinese gōng hé, the abbreviated name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, taken by a literal translation as “work together”

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.

They said they believed "a lot of people are going gung-ho into this war without any thought".

From BBC • Mar. 7, 2026

SINGAPORE—After a year of gung-ho news about China’s gains in artificial intelligence, some elite Chinese AI researchers are coming to a more pessimistic conclusion.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026

Not all of the younger generation of Robleses is as gung-ho about the family business as their parents are.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025

But the opener's gung-ho approach cost him against the pace of Archer who fired down a bouncer and induced a top edge to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.

From Barron's • Dec. 17, 2025

My mother was quiet at last, dabbing her nose with Kleenex while the minister talked: “I can just see her now, wowing the angels with her Chinese cooking and gung-ho attitude.”

From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

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.