audacious

From Latin audacia (“boldness”), from audax (“bold”), from audeō (“to be bold, to dare”).

• (UK) enPR: ô-dāʹshəs IPA^(key): /ɔːˈdeɪ.ʃəs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) enPR: ô-dāʹshəs IPA^(key): /ɔˈdeɪ.ʃəs/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ɑˈdeɪ.ʃəs/
• Hyphenation: au‧da‧cious
• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

audacious (comparative more audacious, superlative most audacious)

1. Showing willingness to take bold risks; recklessly daring.

   Synonyms: bold, daring, courageous, intrepid, venturesome, temeritous, temerarious

   Antonyms: shy, cautious, prudent

   • 1871, Anthony Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds:

     It was an audacious thing for her to attempt, but boldness had often served her turn before.

   • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 27 March 2013:

     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^[2], archived from the original on 17 December 2020:

     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.

   • 2022 May 14, Dave Sherwood and Nelson Acosta, “Cuba sees hints of recovery, announces "audacious" measures to tame inflation”, in Reuters‎^[3], archived from the original on 23 July 2022:

     Cuba’s economy minister described "audacious" measures to tame inflation…

2. Impudent, insolent.

   Synonyms: impudent, presumptuous, brazen, cheeky

• “audacious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “audacious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “audacious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.