Word.ws English Dictionary

wuss

UK/wʊs/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/wɵs/

wuss noun: a weak, ineffectual, cowardly, or timid person.

Noun

wuss (plural wusses)

  1. (derogatory, mildly, slang) A weak, ineffectual, cowardly, or timid person.
    • Nov. 6 Come on you wuss, hit a basket..! John's a wuss.1976, Univ. N. Carolina, Chapel Hill, Campus Slang typescript
    • You are a wuss: part wimp, and part pussy1982, Cameron Crowe, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, spoken by Mike Damone

Verb

wuss (third-person singular simple present wusses, present participle wussing, simple past and past participle wussed)

  1. Only used in wuss out

Synonyms of wuss

All synonyms of wuss

Forms of wuss

Noun
pluralwusses
Verb
third-person singular presentwusses
present participlewussing
past participlewussed
pastwussed

Origin of wuss

1976–1981 in US college slang. Perhaps abbreviated from wussy, or blend of wimp and puss. Compare earlier wussy.

Words formed from wuss

Words that rhyme with wuss

Questions about wuss

What does wuss mean?
Wuss means a weak, ineffectual, cowardly, or timid person.
What part of speech is wuss?
Wuss can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce wuss?
Wuss is pronounced /wʊs/ (UK).
What is the plural of wuss?
The plural of wuss is wusses.

Words near wuss in the dictionary

  1. Wushi
  2. wushu
  3. Wusi
  4. Wusih
  5. Wusong
  6. wuss
  7. wuss out
  8. wussed
  9. wussed out
  10. wusser
  11. wusses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wuss (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-wuss.ogg.

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