Moxie is courage with energy — the push to try something hard and not back down. It is informal American English. You might say a person has moxie when they speak up, start something with little money, or walk onto a stage while still afraid. It is closer to guts or nerve than to a quiet, careful kind of bravery. British English and Taiwan classroom English almost never need this word; students will meet it in US films, books, and talk. The meaning grew out of a drink: ads for an American soft drink called Moxie, sold from 1885, made the name feel like strength in a bottle. There was also a medicine with the same name from 1878. By about 1930 people were using moxie for determination itself. The drink name also turns up in place names in Maine, and in a plant called the moxie-plum; it may come from an Abenaki word for “dark water,” or from an Algonquian root about herbal drinks — scholars are not sure, so that last step is only a maybe.