Gumption
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Common sense, initiative, resourcefulness. Ireland, UK, uncountable, usually
"Gumption, or rum gumption, docility, comprehenſion, capacity."
- 2 fortitude and determination wordnet
- 3 Boldness of enterprise; aggressiveness or initiative. US, uncountable, usually
""You've got a hard way of looking at things, Scarlett," he said. "But you think Hugh over. You could go far and do worse. I think his honesty and his willingness will outweigh his lack of gumption. Scarlett did not answer, for she did not want to be too rude. But to her mind there were few, if any, qualities that outweighed gumption."
- 4 sound practical judgment wordnet
- 5 Energy of body and mind, enthusiasm. US, uncountable, usually
"A person filled with gumption doesn't sit around dissipating and stewing about things. He's at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what's up the track and meeting it when it comes. That's gumption."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I had a lot of gumption when I was young, but now it seems to have all petered out."
Etymology
Borrowed from Scots gumption (“common sense, shrewdness; drive, initiative”); further etymology unknown, possibly connected with Middle English gome (“attention, heed”), from Old Norse gaumr (“attention, heed”), from Proto-Germanic *gaumō. English cognates include gaum (“to comprehend, understand”) and goam (“to recognize, see”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.