gumption

1. 1.

   sound practical judgment

   “Common sense is not so common”

   “he hasn't got the sense God gave little green apples”

   “fortunately she had the good sense to run away”

   Synonymscommon sensegood sensehorse sensesensemother wit

   Broadersagacity

   Narrowerlogicnousroad sense
2. 2.

   fortitude and determination

   “he didn't have the guts to try it”

   Synonymsbackbonegritgutsmoxiesand

   Broaderfortitude

   colloquialism

Other forms of gumption

plural

gumptions·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about gumption

What does gumption mean?

gumption means "sound practical judgment". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in gumption?

gumption has 2 syllables: gump-tion. The stress falls on "gump". In IPA it is /ˈɡʌmpʃən/.

What is another word for gumption?

Close synonyms include common sense, good sense, horse sense, sense, mother wit. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is gumption a common word?

gumption is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.