kiasu.
Afraid to lose out, particularly because one is overly competitive.
Meaning & usage
Afraid to lose out, particularly because one is overly competitive.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Hokkien 驚輸／惊输 (kiaⁿ-su, “afraid to lose out”).
A kiasu person.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Hokkien 驚輸／惊输 (kiaⁿ-su, “afraid to lose out”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.