dauntless
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dauntless
Explanation
A dauntless person is someone who isn't easily frightened or intimidated. If your dance moves bring to mind a marionette being jerked around by a five-year-old but you jump on the dance floor anyway, you could be considered dauntless. The adjective dauntless is a variant of the noun daunt, which means "to intimidate or cause fear." Both words are related to another family of "D" words — dominate, domestic, domain. They all go back to the Latin root domare, which means "to tame." If you're dauntless, it means you're like a tiger or a wild horse — you can't be dominated or tamed.
Vocabulary lists containing dauntless
Power Suffix: -less
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"The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act III
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dauntless Capital Partners, which had owned Surfrider since 2021, “had been planning on keeping it forever,” but as a private-equity firm couldn’t turn down Chrome Hearts’ offer, said co-founder Craig Ballard.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 9, 2025
Dauntless, rational visionaries are always in short supply, especially now.
From Salon • Apr. 16, 2025
Earlier in the same patrol but in a separate operation, suspected smugglers sabotaged and sunk their own speedboat as Dauntless closed in.
From BBC • Nov. 3, 2023
Based in Appleton, Minn., Dauntless Air is a private aerial firefighting company that works in coordination with on-the-ground firefighters and other aerial forces to contain fires, according to its website.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 26, 2023
I never liked it, because it seemed like a way to encourage the Dauntless flair for theatrics, rather than a useful skill.
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
