adventure

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English

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Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English aventure, aunter, anter, from Old French aventure, from Vulgar Latin *adventūra, from Latin adventūrus (about to arrive, (Vulgar Latin) about to happen), future active participle of adveniō (to arrive), which in the Romance languages took the sense of "to happen, befall" (see also advene).

Compare Scots adventur, Swedish äventyr, German Abenteuer.

Noun

adventure (countable and uncountable, plural adventures)

  1. (uncountable) A feeling of desire for new and exciting things.
    Antonym: abstention
    his sense of adventure
  2. A remarkable occurrence; a striking event.
    A life full of adventures.
  3. A daring feat; a bold undertaking, in which dangers are likely to be encountered, and the issue is staked upon unforeseen events; the encountering of risks.
  4. A mercantile or speculative enterprise of hazard; a venture; a shipment by a merchant on his own account.
  5. (video games) A text adventure or an adventure game.
    • 1984 May, “Spyplane”, in Crash, number 4, (review):
      The first thing to strike me about Spyplane was that it is more like a verbal simulation than an adventure.
    • 1988 May, Mike Gerrard, “The Guild of Thieves ”, in Your Sinclair, number 29, archived from the original on 26 May 2013:
      To sum up, I think this is definitely one of the best adventures around for the Spectrum now, along with Gnome Ranger[...]
    • 1992 October, Larry Horsfield, “The SU Guide to Playing and Writing Adventure Games”, in Sinclair User, number 128:
      Before you sit down in front of your Speccy to play an adventure, equip yourself with a pencil, eraser and plenty of paper. This so that you may draw a 'map' of the adventure as you move around.
  6. (obsolete) That which happens by chance; hazard; hap.
    Synonyms: fortune, hazard, luck; see also Thesaurus:luck
  7. (obsolete) Chance of danger or loss.
    Synonym: hazard
  8. (obsolete) Risk; danger; peril.
    Synonyms: jeopardy; see also Thesaurus:danger
    • 1895, Lord Berners, transl., The Chronicles of Froissart:
      He was in great adventure of his life.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2

From Middle English aventuren, auntren, which from Old French aventurer, from aventure.

Verb

adventure (third-person singular simple present adventures, present participle adventuring, simple past and past participle adventured)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To risk or hazard; jeopard; venture.
  2. (archaic, transitive) To venture upon; to run the risk of; to dare.
  3. (archaic, intransitive) To try the chance; to take the risk.
    • 1792, Anthony à Wood, The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford: , volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Gutch, →OCLC, page 661:
      The year following the ſaid Warham was tranſlated to Canterbury, at whoſe inthronization ſomething occurred relating to this Univerſity; which though a little out of the road, yet I ſhall adventure to remember it, and it is this.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

Anagrams

Latin

Participle

adventūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of adventūrus

Middle French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French avanture, with the addition of a d to reflect Latin adventūrum.

Noun

adventure f (plural adventures)

  1. adventure
  2. fortune