audacious

English

Etymology

From Latin audacia (“boldness”), from audax (“bold”), from audeō (“I am bold, I dare”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: ô-dāʹshəs IPA^(key): /ɔːˈdeɪʃəs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) enPR: ô-dāʹshəs IPA^(key): /ɔˈdeɪʃəs/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

Adjective

audacious (comparative more audacious, superlative most audacious)

1. Showing willingness to take bold risks; recklessly daring.
   • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games

     That such a safe adaptation could come of The Hunger Games speaks more to the trilogy’s commercial ascent than the book’s actual content, which is audacious and savvy in its dark calculations.

   • 2014 August 21, “A brazen heist in Paris [print version: International New York Times, 22 August 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times‎:

     The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months.

2. Impudent, insolent.

Synonyms

• (willing to take bold risks): bold, daring, temeritous, temerarious

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “willing to take bold risks”): shy, cautious, prudent

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• “audacious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “audacious”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “audacious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.