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kiasiness

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Singapore/ˈkjɑːsiːnəs/

kiasiness noun: the quality of being kiasi, a stereotypically Singaporean attitude associated with being overly wary and willing to take excessive measures to avoid risk.

Noun

kiasiness (uncountable)

  1. (Singapore, Singlish, derogatory, mildly) The quality of being kiasi, a stereotypically Singaporean attitude associated with being overly wary and willing to take excessive measures to avoid risk.

Origin of kiasiness

kiasi + -ness, from Hokkien 驚死／惊死 (kiaⁿ-sí, “afraid to die”)

Questions about kiasiness

What does kiasiness mean?
Kiasiness means the quality of being kiasi, a stereotypically Singaporean attitude associated with being overly wary and willing to take excessive measures to avoid risk.
What part of speech is kiasiness?
Kiasiness is a noun.
How do you pronounce kiasiness?
Kiasiness is pronounced /ˈkjɑːsiːnəs/ (Singapore).

Words near kiasiness in the dictionary

  1. kiaps
  2. kiar
  3. Kiara
  4. KIAS
  5. kiasi
  6. kiasiness
  7. kiasis
  8. kiasu
  9. kiasuism
  10. kiasuness
  11. kiasus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kiasiness (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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