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.
Then came a new refrain, determined and dauntless: “Pali strong!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2025
The film, which Focus Features will release in 250 nationwide theaters on June 30, shines a warm spotlight on a much-misunderstood community, and three of its most dauntless champions.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
They hoped the plucky, dauntless McAuliffe would serve as a nostalgic link to the early days of the space program, when celebrity astronauts such as Neil Armstrong and John Glenn were viewed as beloved pioneers.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2021
Diligent and dauntless, she reinvented herself again and began looking after several family properties, managing the farms and overseeing the workers.
From Washington Times ● May 1, 2020
It was a fierce and dauntless beauty, but it was not welcoming.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
