Definition of "chutzpah" [chutzpah]

• Utter nerve; effrontery: "has the chutzpah to claim a lock on God and morality” ( New York Times). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And people I trust tell me I practically invented the word "chutzpah.""
• "I particularly enjoyed Jagger's contribution, doing the voice almost as well as Phil Cornwell used to do it in Stella Street, although I should have thought a lyric interpreter like Jagger might have made a better fist of pronouncing the Yiddish word chutzpah."
• "Michele Bachman's failing attempt to pronounce the word "chutzpah" correctly last week was nothing short of ignorant."