“When I see ⟳ a man who has a good business, sufficient to support ⟳ his family respectably, neglecting his affairs, and running into debt, in order ⟳ to obtain ⟳ a political office, I fancy that, whatever may be his talents, he is not burdened with gumption. […] When I see ⟳ a man attending diligently to his own ⟳ concerns, sending his children to school, paying his debts, and keeping clear of law suits, quarrels, and politics, I set ⟳ him down as a man possessing a reasonable share ⟳ of gumption.”

“As a balance to genius, which is ideally creative, gumption is required to control ⟳, to direct ⟳. […] Gumption is the power to realize ⟳ the poetical worth of common sense ⟳. Without that power no man was ever truly great.”

“Whatever the job turned out to be, if it went against her gumptions, she would make ⟳ sure Gregory would have ⟳ hell on his hands and make ⟳ him eager to release ⟳ her from the deal ⟳.”

“"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.”

“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.”

CEFR level

Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.

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Gumption

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