assertiveadjective
uk/əˈsɜː.tɪv/us/əˈsɝː.t̬ɪv/C2 Someone who is assertive behaves confidently and is not frightened to say what they want or believe:
If you really want the promotion, you'll have to be more assertive.
More examples
- I've had to train myself to be more assertive at work.
- Don't let him boss you around like that - try to be a bit more assertive!
- In difficult situations like that, it's important to be assertive without getting angry or aggressive.
- I've become a lot more assertive as I've got older, and will no longer put up with bad service.
- He taught his children to be assertive and to stand up to the bullies.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Confidence & self-assurance
- amour propre
- aplomb
- assertiveness training
- assured
- assuredly
- brass
- breezy
- dogmatism
- dogmatist
- ego
- forwardness
- hold your head (up) high idiom
- inadequacy
- positively
- safe
- sassy
- self-assertive
- self-assured
- self-belief
- self-confident
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assertively
adverb uk/əˈsɜː.tɪv.li/us/əˈsɝː.t̬ɪv.li/
We should not be afraid to assertively condemn such actions.
assertiveness
noun [ U ] uk/əˈsɜː.tɪv.nəs/us/əˈsɝː.t̬ɪv.nəs/