gutsy
Americanadjective
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gutsier,
comparative
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gutsiest
superlative
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having a great deal of courage or nerve.
a gutsy lampooner of the administration.
-
robust, vigorous, or earthy; lusty.
gutsy writing; a gutsy red wine.
adjective
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gluttonous; greedy
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full of courage, determination, or boldness
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gutsy
1890–95; guts ( def. ) (in the sense “fortitude”) + -y 1; cf. -sy
Explanation
If someone's gutsy, they're bold and spirited. The gutsy pilot Amelia Earhart defied cultural expectations and braved dangerous situations to set many records in aviation. Beyond their courage and bravery, a gutsy person also has grit and determination, often facing several challenges at once. A gutsy athlete plays through pain, and a gutsy activist confronts challenges head-on and keeps working for the cause she believes in. Around 1800, gutsy meant "greedy," but by the end of the 19th century it came to be defined as "brave and plucky," from the figurative "spirits or courage" sense of guts.
Vocabulary lists containing gutsy
Matilda
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The Schwa Was Here
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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.
See Examples For:
Because LeBron James looked superhuman since playing those 45 minutes, including all five gutsy minutes of ovetime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
Yet the same people clung fiercely to their self-image as gutsy investors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
He followed a gutsy par save on 11 with birdies at the next two holes.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
Like all great players, McIlroy ironed out his swing kinks and sacrificed distance with the driver for a greater accuracy which underpinned a gutsy one-under 71 in Sunday's finale.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
Those Panthers . . . those itsy, bitsy football players . . . those hearty, gutsy guys from the oil fields . . . what about ’em?
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
But this was one of the gutsier efforts by a Seattle defensive line in years led by newcomers Uchenna Nwosu and Shelby Harris, who each seemed to come up with one big play after another.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 12, 2022
Wong Howe had all of those things, but he was gutsier — he had to be.
From New York Times ● May 27, 2022
Kapler called it "one of the gutsier performances of the year from anybody in our pen."
From Fox News ● Sep. 23, 2021
This time she was both more conventional and gutsier, with Beethoven's Second Symphony; Mozart's late Piano Concerto No. 24, with David Fray as soloist; and the U.S. premiere of Dai Fujikura's "Secret Forest."
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2018
To wish they were better, gutsier, more harmonious feminists is a needless distraction: far better to wish them part of a bigger choir.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 21, 2017
“I did have a front-row seat to one of the gutsiest, toughest performances of a quarterback playing in a season that I have ever seen,” Keenum said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 5, 2022
In his first victory, in 2010, Mr. Bream’s 1989 BMW 3-Series beat 100 other cars at Buttonwillow Raceway in Bakersfield, where Southern California’s gutsiest speed-shop mechanics compete.
From New York Times ● Sep. 3, 2020
Pat called a timeout and then made what was probably the gutsiest call I ever saw her make.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 3, 2020
“That’s one of the gutsiest things that I’ve seen, when he was embracing the booing, and that type of stuff. That took a lot of cojones, as they say,” seven-time Grand Slam champion McEnroe said.
From Reuters ● Jan. 16, 2020
Roach said that, even as Pacquiao was turning in perhaps the best, certainly the gutsiest, performance of his long career, he saw some hints that the time to step away is now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2019
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.
