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  • bravo
    bravo
    interjection
    (used in praising a performer.)
  • Bravo
    Bravo
    noun
    communications a code word for the letter b
Synonyms

bravo

American  
[brah-voh, brah-voh] / ˈbrɑ voʊ, brɑˈvoʊ /

interjection

  1. (used in praising a performer.)


noun

  • bravos,
    plural,  plural
  • bravoes
    plural
  1. a shout of “bravo!”

  2. a daring bandit, assassin, or murderer, especially one hired to steal or murder for another.

  3. a word used in communications to represent the letter B.

verb (used without object)

bravoed, bravoing
  1. to shout “bravo!”

bravo 1 British  

interjection

  1. well done!

"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

noun

  1. a cry of "bravo"

  2. a hired killer or assassin

"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
Bravo 2 British  
/ ˈbrɑːvəʊ /

noun

  1. communications a code word for the letter b

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of bravo

First recorded in 1755–65; from Italian; see brave


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

"No, I stopped," said Meloni, prompting EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to cheer "bravo".

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

When Maxey—and really, bravo for Maxey, who is the soul of this Philly team—put Game 7 with a string of fearless drives, the statement was Lazarus-like.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

You’ve created the life you wanted for yourself, and you can afford to eat in your favorite hotspots, so bravo for making it this far on your own terms.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 12, 2026

"You have brought happiness to all Ivorians, bravo, bravo," said President Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast, which hosted the pan-African tournament.

From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2024

“Well, bravo you! How do people like you sleep at night? That is what I want to know.”

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

Lt Cdr Ben Brown, commanding officer of the Royal Navy's Bravo Squadron bomb disposal team, added navy disposal experts were continuing to help police with the unexploded "air-dropped bomb".

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

"It was an unregulated facility; it had faced administrative proceedings and fines since 2019, and was a repeat offender," the official, Jose Bravo, said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026

Bravo has no intentions to remove footage of Gallagher from the current season, The Times has learned.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Thoma Bravo, a longtime technology investor, acquired cybersecurity firm Proofpoint in 2021.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

We saw Rio Bravo three times, but we saw our favorite Western, The Magnificent Seven, thirteen times.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

The ribauds were armed with maces, and watched night and day over the person of the king, who feared the assassins of the Old Man of the Mountain and the bravoes of Richard of England.

From Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1 by William Walton

Long before this, however, the alarm had been given to other personages of our story; the bravoes in one place; and Agnes and Perpetua in another.

From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni

They reached the castle; the bravoes who were on the esplanade and at the door, retired on both sides to leave the passage free.

From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni

But no one could account for the attack of the bravoes: all agreed in suspecting Don Roderick; but the rest was total obscurity.

From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni

Your dismissal of the bravoes, by means of the count’s ring, was a masterly stroke.

From Olla Podrida by Frederick Marryat

So what if our bravos are slightly muffled by masks?

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2021

Chicago is “a journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to the last herd of fantastic bravos that once roamed the newspaper offices of the country.”

From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2016

At the end, the courageous cast and creative team received lusty bravos from many in the hall.

From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2016

And these—he pointed to some huge black bulls—were Percy’s toros bravos.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 13, 2015

Next thing, I heave myself up and am on top, thumped all round with bravos by other riders.

From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads

Onetime Hero Coste, bravoed in Manhattan as a counterspy in 1945, was now arrested in France as a wartime spy for Germany and a collaborator since 1940.

From Time Magazine Archive

Chicago operagoers had already bravoed both of them long ago.

From Time Magazine Archive

When it was published in London last month, British critics bravoed.

From Time Magazine Archive

He was bravoed in the capitals of Europe and South America, where he made the bolero famous.

From Time Magazine Archive

"And my Sunbeam was bravoed, and encored, and crowned with flowers, was she not?"

From The Baronet's Bride by May Agnes Fleming

But, once there, the power and diamond-hard brilliance of his playing had the studio audience bravoing between movements, despite NBC's standing request to the audience not to applaud until the work is finished.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nearby, on an old-fashioned bed topped by a canopy, sat bravoing Authoress de Beauvoir.

From Time Magazine Archive

He was visibly furious when the soloists in Otello tricked him by going offstage by another exit and hiding until Toscanini was forced to face the bravoing audience alone.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was a burst of loud bravoing and clapping.

From Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley

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