audacious
/ɔːˈdeɪʃəs
/adjective
1Showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks: a series of audacious takeovers...
- Today we look at a bold and audacious project that's bringing a fresh approach to the way we understand the ecology of this country.
- What a match, what a turnaround and what a scintillating performance by this brave, audacious and talented Welsh team.
- From this dynamic leader's audacious vision has sprung a city that is breathtaking in scale and vision.
Synonyms
bold, daring, fearless, intrepid, brave, unafraid, unflinching, courageous, valiant, valorous, heroic, dashing, plucky, daredevil, devil-may-care, death-or-glory, reckless, wild, madcap;
adventurous, venturesome, enterprising, dynamic, spirited, mettlesome
informal game, gutsy, spunky, ballsy, have-a-go, go-ahead
rare venturous, temerarious
2Showing an impudent lack of respect: he made an audacious remark...
- He is too sweet, too nice, too inoffensive for the dig at hypocrisy to hit home, and many of the jokes lack the audacious punch of old.
- It's a shocking, audacious moment - one of the few times the film makes you sit up and take notice.
- He is audacious, showing such wilful disrespect to the past that one wonders if it ever existed!
Synonyms
impudent, impertinent, insolent, presumptuous, forward, cheeky, irreverent, discourteous, disrespectful, insubordinate, ill-mannered, bad-mannered, unmannerly, mannerless, rude, crude, brazen, brazen-faced, brash, shameless, pert, defiant, bold, bold as brass, outrageous, shocking, out of line
informal brass-necked, cocky, lippy, mouthy, fresh, flip
British informal saucy, smart-arsed
North American informal sassy, nervy, smart-assed
archaic malapert, contumelious
Derivatives
audaciously
/ adverb ...- She has always been audaciously ambitious.
- Others, more audaciously, have even alleged corruption.
- His poetry is neither traditional, nor audaciously experimental, but lyrical and contemporary in themes.
audaciousness
- I am just shocked at such blatant acts of audaciousness.
- It is breathtaking in its audaciousness, frightening in its adventurousness, worrying in its significance.
- Most biographers have attributed her tenacity and audaciousness to the competitive, mercurial nature of an acting career in New York and Hollywood.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from Latin audax, audac- 'bold' (from audere 'dare') + -ious.
Today audacious means ‘willing to take surprisingly bold risks’ and ‘showing a lack of respect, impudent’, but it originally had a more direct sense of ‘bold, confident, daring’. The root is Latin audax ‘bold’.