chutzpah
/ˈxʊts.pə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.32 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Nearly arrogant courage; utter audacity, effrontery or impudence; supreme self-confidence; exaggerated self-opinion.
Informal; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "But seriously, the ability to just come out and put on a placard that the Jurassic era is temporally contiguous with the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt — well, there’s a word for that, and that word is chutzpah."
- "Okay, okay, okay… First of all, “shutspah” is actually pronounced “khootspah”. But, but-but-but the idea, the idea that daily fantasy sites are using this law to claim they’re not gambling is not chutzpah, it’s khorseshit!"
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: חוצפּה, חוּצְפָּא