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

"We hope the humour, ingenuity and audacity she brought to her work may continue to inspire you as it will do us."

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Then you have the 2026 Philadelphia Phillies, who have as much reverence for tradition as a tourist with the audacity to ask for Camembert on his cheesesteak.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

He railed against Rama’s audacity in offering up parts of Albania for sale at business meetings with men in suits.

From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026

This was shockingly unbookish behavior made worse by flabbergasting audacity.

From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026

His forwardness and audacity often caught them off guard.

From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya

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

While watching “Diary of a Teenage Girl,” I tried to imagine the superb movie that it nearly is, the one that Minnie’s passionate audacities could have sparked.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 7, 2015

Lawrence, reserved, incorrigible, skulks about England, trying to decide whether or not to give the world his 120,000-word Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the staggering chronicle of his secret audacities and triumphs.

From Time Magazine Archive

After this, the Regent was for Cruikshank a stimulant to the drollest audacities.

From George Cruikshank by W. H. Chesson

Related Words

• chutzpah
• gall
• guts
• spunk