audacious

adjective

au·​da·​cious ȯ-ˈdā-shəs 

1

a

: intrepidly daring : adventurous

an audacious mountain climber

b

: recklessly bold : rash

an audacious maneuver

2

: contemptuous of law, religion, or decorum : insolent

an audacious maverick

3

: marked by originality and verve

audacious experiments

audaciously adverb

audaciousness noun

Did you know?

Fortune favors the bold—or, as ancient Romans are known to have said, “audentes Fortuna iuvat.” Audentes here is the present participle of the Latin verb audēre, meaning “to dare,” a word that also led, via several etymological twists and turns through the centuries, to the English adjective audacious. When it first appeared in English in the mid-1500s, audacious meant “intrepidly daring,” a sense we still use today when we apply the word to various feats of derring-do and those who dare to do them. Since then it has developed several additional meanings, including the closely related “recklessly bold” and “marked by originality and verve,” as in “her audacious new album heralds the future of hip-hop.” Of course, with audacity (another audēre descendent) comes risk that fortune, despite the maxim, doesn’t always favor: as fungi foragers know, there are sagacious mushroomers, and audacious mushroomers, but there are no sagacious audacious mushroomers.

Synonyms

• arch
• bold
• bold-faced
• brash
• brassbound
• brassy
• brazen
• brazen-faced
• cheeky
• cocksure
• cocky
• fresh
• impertinent
• impudent
• insolent
• nervy
• sassy
• saucy
• wise

Examples of audacious in a Sentence

Whatever made him think his audacious fiction would sell—especially after a lifetime of literary marginalization—is a mystery, but he has certainly been vindicated. With a rush of work that he did not begin publishing until he was in his forties, he won literary fame in Europe and Latin America. —Valerie Sayers, Commonweal, 13 July 2007

This is an audacious claim, and Kramer anticipates, even encourages, the controversy it might provoke. —Gary Greenberg, Harper's, August 2005

… Morgan Pressel, the top-ranked female amateur in the country, has charted a less audacious course. A 17-year-old scrapper who gained prominence by tying for second at the U.S. Women's Open in June, Pressel is satisfied with taking on and whipping her own kind. —E. M. Swift, Sports Illustrated, 8 Aug. 2005

… he owns and operates a seductively spacious jazz club. But that's his day job, his cover. He executes his audacious midnight burglaries outside of the city, working solo, mapping out every detail so that nothing can go wrong, then returning like a phantom. —Owen Gliberman, Entertainment Weekly, 20 July 2001

They have audacious plans for the new school.

This is her most audacious film so far.

She made an audacious decision to quit her job.

Recent Examples on the Web

But until then, what can today’s leaders learn from Hefner’s audacious move? —Jeetendr Sehdev, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024

The film has been praised as an audacious modern Cinderella story after winning the Palme d’Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. —Shania Russell, EW.com, 20 Oct. 2024

If the first phase of Oct. 7—breaching the fence erected by Israel and overrunning its military bases—was an audacious military operation, the assault on the civilian settlements beyond was something else. —Karl Vick, TIME, 18 Oct. 2024

The audacious attack, during which more than eighty bombs were dropped on residential buildings that sit atop the group’s underground headquarters, was ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from New York, before delivering a speech at the United Nations General Assembly. —Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French audacieux, from audace "daring, recklessness" (borrowed from Latin audācia, from audāc-, audāx "daring, bold, excessively daring, reckless" + -ia -ia entry 1) + -ieux -ious; audāx from audēre "to intend, dare, venture" (verbal derivative of avidus "ardent, eager, greedy") + -āc-, -āx, deverbal suffix denoting habitual or successful performance (probably going back to Indo-European *-eh₂, noun ending + *-k-, suffixal formative) — more at avid

First Known Use

1550, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Podcast

Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!

Kids Definition

audacious

adjective

au·​da·​cious ȯ-ˈdā-shəs 

1

: very bold and daring : fearless

2

: showing a lack of proper respect

audaciously adverb

audaciousness noun