guts
noun · verb
Form of gut , plural of gut.
Simple meaning
Courage to do something hard or scary.
Pronunciation
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
plural of gut
The alimentary canal, especially the intestine.
plural of gut
The abdomen of a person, especially one that is enlarged
plural of gut
A person's emotional, visceral self.
plural of gut
The intestines of an animal used to make strings of a tennis racket or violin, etc.
verb
third-person singular of gut
To remove or destroy the most important parts of.
third-person singular of gut
To eviscerate.
“The fisherman guts the fish before cooking them.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The alimentary canal, especially the intestine.
Used this way, guts is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use guts
- “He didn't have the guts to try it.”noun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.