bravado

American  

[bruh-vah-doh] / brəˈvɑ doʊ /

noun

• bravadoes,
  plural
• bravados
  plural

1. 

   a pretentious, swaggering display of courage.

   Synonyms:

   braggadocio, bombast, bluster, brag

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bravado British  

/ brəˈvɑːdəʊ /

noun

1. vaunted display of courage or self-confidence; swagger

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Synonym Usage

See courage.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• overbravado
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bravadoes
  plural
• bravados
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bravado

First recorded in 1575–85; from Spanish bravada (now bravata, from Italian ), equivalent to brav(o) “brave” + -ada noun suffix; see origin at brave, -ade ¹

Explanation

If you act with bravado, you are making a bold showy statement. Picture a cowboy bursting through saloon doors in an old western, and you can picture bravado. The noun bravado is derived from the French and Italian words meaning "bragging and boasting," and it is related to the word bravo. Today, the word means an almost-over-the-top amount of courage, but it can also be used (often with the word false) to mean a false show of bravery: "It was her first day in the classroom and she was almost shaking with fear, but with false bravado — she took a deep breath and turned to face her students — 20 kindergartners."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bravado bravadoes bravados

We understand Paul’s fatal bravado in tenor Michael Kuhn’s jaunty recounting of a race with a rabbit that ends with him crashing his car—it’s a performance designed to deflect Norman’s offer of help.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

Throughout the trial, Davis' defence team tried to persuade jurors that his comments were fiction - bravado and exaggeration intended to sell books and make money.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

But the DNA of the Barbary wars exists throughout American military history, a cocktail of entitlement, bravado and hypocrisy flavored with desperate violence.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

Buzz’s “To infinity and beyond” catchphrase connotes adventure and exploration, and the character’s journey from self-serious bravado to emotional vulnerability has given him a superpower far greater than the ability to fly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026

An inextinguishable elation gripped the room and the voices of the young aviators were fleshed with bravado.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

For, one day, a band of valiant men of Thurgau, incited by the bailiff from Uri, had tried to surprise the city, in order to punish her for her bravadoes against the Swiss.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 08 The Later Renaissance: from Gutenberg to the Reformation by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne

This is not, as might be supposed, one of those bravadoes of the timid, who shout before Death in order to deaden the sound of his footsteps.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 5 by Hamilton Wright Mabie

But let us still resist him; for notwithstanding all his bravadoes, he promoteth the fool and none else.

From The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream, by John Bunyan by John Bunyan

During the time that Ferdinand and Isabella besieged the city, the young Moorish and Spanish knights vied with each other in extravagant bravadoes.

From The Crayon Papers by Washington Irving

The fall of Charles X. had increased the audacity of the old Napoleonic veteran, who uttered all imaginable bravadoes.

From The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France

He must use his poetic powers as wonders attesting the purpose for which he speaks—not as mere bravados of ostentatious power.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850. by Various

She makes sorties and attacks, she endeavours to hide her weakness by her bravados, and when she replies most disdainfully to a summons to capitulate, is perhaps on the eve of surrender.

From At Agincourt by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

Mimi began to laugh and to utter bravados.

From Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henry Murger

Next to being raided by the sheriff of an adjacent county, having a river prophet come on board is the greatest excitement and the smartest amusement of the bravados down the river.

From The River Prophet by Ralph P. (Ralph Pallen) Coleman

It would be interesting to stare defiantly at his enemy at close range, to speak with him again man to man, to lure him into further bravados.

From Broken to the Plow by Charles Caldwell Dobie

Related Words

• bluster