Chutzpah

//ˈxʊts.pə// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Nearly arrogant courage; utter audacity, effrontery or impudence; supreme self-confidence; exaggerated self-opinion. informal, uncountable, usually

    "If the service is rotten and the meal a disaster, we should withhold a tip and explain why we are doing so. Few of us have the chutzpah to do this."

  2. 2
    (Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
assuranceaudacitybackboneballballballs

Example

More examples

"I don't know whether I've got the chutzpah to try it."

Etymology

Originated c. 1890–95 from Yiddish חוצפּה (khutspe), which was either borrowed via Medieval Hebrew or directly came from Aramaic חוּצְפָּא (ḥuṣpā, “audacity, boldness”), derived from חֲצַף (ḥăṣap̄, “to be impudent, arrogant”).

Related phrases

self confidenceself opinion

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.