gung-ho
adjective
wholeheartedly enthusiastic and loyal; eager; zealous.
gung-ho
American
[guhng-hoh]
/ ˈgʌŋˈhoʊ /
adjective
adverb
gung ho
British
/ ɡʌŋ həʊ /
adjective
-
extremely enthusiastic and enterprising, sometimes to excess
-
extremely keen to participate in military combat
gung-ho
Cultural
gung ho
Idioms
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.
See Examples For:
He’s gung-ho about continuing to try to win, again, including next year, subject to whatever next year’s climate looks like.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Calling on him to be gung-ho from the get-go against Morocco, or Brazil, is deeply flawed because that's exactly what those teams want Scotland to do.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 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
Mr. Trump, focused on the nuclear program, was presumed to be less gung-ho about addressing the conventional missile threat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 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
And because of COVID-19 and changes in the industry, my husband, the one gung ho about moving back, ended up being the one to struggle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025
Other researchers are less gung ho about such heady prospects.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 10, 2023
He said the ranks include people who are gung ho and supremely fit, but also more ordinary people.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 14, 2023
“Consistent with my own push for statehood, of course I was gung ho about giving this authority back to the District,” she said.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 31, 2021
“I just wish you weren’t so gung ho about it. If I didn’t know you better, I’d say there was some human blood in you.”
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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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.
