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audacious

[aw-dey-shuhs]
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adjective

extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless: an audacious explorer.
extremely original; without restriction to prior ideas; highly inventive: an audacious vision of the city's bright future.
recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen.
lively; unrestrained; uninhibited: an audacious interpretation of her role.

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RELATED WORDS

foolhardy, bold, resolute, adventurous, courageous, risky, brazen, brassy, brave, cheeky, daredevil, dauntless, enterprising, fearless, intrepid, nervy, rash, unafraid, undaunted, valiant

Nearby words

  1. auction pitch,
  2. auctioneer,
  3. auctorial,
  4. aucuba,
  5. aud.,
  6. audaciously,
  7. audacity,
  8. aude,
  9. auden,
  10. auden, w. h.

Origin of audacious

First recorded in 1540–50; audaci(ty) + -ous
ANTONYMS FOR audacious
1. cowardly.
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Related forms
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for audacious

British Dictionary definitions for audacious

audacious

adjective

recklessly bold or daring; fearless
impudent or presumptuous
Derived Formsaudaciously, adverbaudaciousness or audacity (ɔːˈdæsɪtɪ), noun

Word Origin for audacious

C16: from Latin audāx bold, from audēre to dare
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for audacious

audacious

adj.

1540s, "confident, intrepid," from Middle French audacieux, from audace "boldness," from Latin audacia "daring, boldness, courage," from audax "brave, bold, daring," but more often "bold" in a bad sense, "audacious, rash, foolhardy," from audere "to dare, be bold." Bad sense of "shameless" is attested from 1590s in English. Related: Audaciously.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper