audacity

American  

[aw-das-i-tee] / ɔˈdæs ɪ ti /

noun

audacities plural

1. boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.

   Synonyms:

   foolhardiness, temerity, grit, spunk, nerve

   Antonyms:

   prudence, discretion

2. effrontery or insolence; shameless boldness.

   His questioner's audacity shocked the lecturer.

   Synonyms:

   brashness, impertinence, impudence

   Antonyms:

   discretion, prudence

3. Usually audacities audacious or particularly bold or daring acts or statements.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• audacities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of audacity

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English audacite, equivalent to Latin audāc- (stem of audāx “bold, daring”) + -ity

Explanation

If you have audacity then you're one daring — and perhaps reckless — character. Running a red light with three previous tickets under your belt certainly shows audacity. And stupidity. The noun audacity developed from the Latin word audacitas, which means “boldness." So someone who shows audacity makes bold moves — and isn't afraid of the consequences. Audacity can be admired or frowned upon, depending how far it's taken and how it rears its head. But as former British Prime Minister and novelist Benjamin Disraeli once said, “Success is the child of audacity.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

audacity audacities

Through her audacity and fierce self-belief, Osterberg was a prime mover in rewriting the playbook for women in British sport.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

“Big Bang” puts readers in the midst of this monumental scientific debate, while demonstrating that, for all its audacity, “the Big Bang model can be understood by everyone.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

Operating on a mixture of audacity, talent, and sheer guts, Bertei became part of the No Wave scene that existed immediately adjacent to the Punk Rock Class of 1975.

From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2026

Speaking to Times Radio earlier this month, Turner said he was "already on a conduct warning for having the audacity to say that these proposals are ludicrous".

From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026

Alfons couldn’t believe the officer’s audacity to call Adolf Hitler a mass murderer.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Watching “The Goldfinch,” I found myself fantasizing about one of the possible audacities that the movie, absent Theo’s unifying voice, could have hazarded.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 18, 2019

Besides a light show with a simulated jungle made by hundreds of floor-to-ceiling twisty elastic bands, their presentation didn’t rely on expensive mechanical audacities; it resorted to what the program described as an “analogue inventiveness.”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 5, 2016

The nostalgia that turns critics away from many of the most bravely original films today is itself a byproduct of the neoclassical audacities of the New Wave.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 2, 2015

An astounded Paris critic summed up his achievement: "Charles Ives seems to have created, before the Sacre du Printemps, a style which by its audacities places its author among the pioneers of music."

From Time Magazine Archive

There was nothing so to account but the fragments of Mrs. Headway’s conversation, the peculiarities of her accent, the sallies of her wit, the audacities of her fancy, the odd echoes of her past. 

From Lady Barbarina The Siege of London, An International Episode and Other Tales by James, Henry

Related Words

• chutzpah
• gall
• guts
• spunk