sisu

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Australia/ˈsɪsʉː/

sisu noun: strength of will in the face of adversity; grit, perseverance or determination, regarded as an integral part of Finnish culture.

Noun

sisu (uncountable)

Strength of will in the face of adversity; grit, perseverance or determination, regarded as an integral part of Finnish culture.
- Last week the Finns gave the world a good example of sisu by carrying the war into Russian territory on one front while on another they withstood merciless attacks by a reinforced Russian Army.1940 January 8, “Northern Theatre:Sisu”, in Time Magazine
- People living in northern climates need plenty of sisu.1999, Norma J. Livo, George O. Livo, The Enchanted Wood and Other Tales from Finland, →ISBN, page 5

We agreed there was a pressing need for a systematic investigation of sisu, how Finns think about it, how it is propagated.2016, Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, →ISBN:
Life requires all of us to have a certain level of sisu when things get tough, which they inevitably will.2016, Katie Falkowski, GRIND: Greatness Rises in Each New Day: Get up, Show up, and Grind, →ISBN:

Borrowed from Finnish sisu, documented in English since at least 1940.

What does sisu mean?: Sisu means strength of will in the face of adversity; grit, perseverance or determination, regarded as an integral part of Finnish culture.
How do you use sisu in a sentence?: We agreed there was a pressing need for a systematic investigation of sisu, how Finns think about it, how it is propagated.
What part of speech is sisu?: Sisu is a noun.
How do you pronounce sisu?: Sisu is pronounced /ˈsɪsʉː/ (Australia).

Adapted from Wiktionary: sisu (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “sisu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sisu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.