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

Babitz courted danger with heedless bravado and exemplary recklessness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

In a Wall Street Journal interview that November, founder Ren Zhengfei invited President Trump to come visit and brushed off U.S. sanctions with characteristic bravado.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

“We anticipate more of these bouts of bravado to dictate the region for a while as both sides claim they are winning and neither is willing to be seen as disadvantaged,” he said.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 1, 2026

Meagan adds that she enjoys the juxtaposition of the "bravado" of ice hockey mixed with the characters' "vulnerability underneath".

From BBC ● May 30, 2026

They speak of the schools with yearning and bravado; they want desperately to be selected.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

But idlers and bravadoes of larger size and prouder show must beware, how they place themselves within its sweep.

From Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I won't have any of those little proceedings, of those little bravadoes, and of those great risks, my dear fellow!

From The Children of Alsace Les Oberl?s by Ren? Bazin

She kept a little apart with Bartley, and plied him with bravadoes, with pouts, with little cries of suspense.

From A Modern Instance by William Dean Howells

For three hours he questioned and insulted them, while a score of attendant press agents took down his magnificent bravadoes to be embellished for the press of the day.

From The War Upon Religion Being an Account of the Rise and Progress of Anti-christianism in Europe by Francis A. (Francis Aloysius) Cunningham

It was easy to see that these mutual bravadoes were intended only to dazzle the populace, and that the two kings were too wise to think of executing their pretended purpose.

From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part B. From Henry III. to Richard III. by David Hume

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

Mimi began to laugh and to utter bravados.

From Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henry Murger

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

They made many bravados, daily shooting off forty, fifty, or sixty pieces of ordnance at Nero and Puloway, thinking to frighten us.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Robert Kerr

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

Related Words

• bluster