trepidatious

adjective

trep·​i·​da·​tious ˌtre-pə-ˈdā-shəs How to pronounce trepidatious (audio)
variants or less commonly trepidacious
: feeling trepidation : apprehensive
Within a couple of minutes of coming "on stage" she had an immediate rapport with the studio audience, discussing with candor what sort of questions they might have, and had the whole session in hand and us trepidatious panelists at ease.Malcolm S. Forbes
trepidatiously adverb

Examples of trepidatious in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web With the biggest performance of the year hanging in the balance, the trepidatious trio go in search of His Royal Yeah!-ness. Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 8 Feb. 2024 Crater Lake Superintendent Craig Ackerman said he’s been feeling more trepidatious than excited for the eclipse, as the park tries to prepare for a surge of visitors at what is normally the end of its busy season. Jamie Hale, oregonlive, 19 Sep. 2023 Wynette, on the other hand, is much less trepidatious than her husband, wearing a red sequined number inspired by a black dress worn on an album cover. Tyler Coates, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Aug. 2023 The title track on the album is a trepidatious love song. Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 29 June 2023 Amid turbulent economic conditions and trepidatious customers, Salesforce managed to deliver better-than-expected quarterly financial results. Bykylie Robison, Fortune, 1 June 2023 The hazy synth hook does sound hopeful, if a bit trepidatious in its optimism, as Amtrac sings of pieces falling into place and something to hold on to. Katie Bain, Billboard, 13 Jan. 2023 In Lowery’s film, the Darling family (Molly Parker and Alan Tudyk appear as Ma and Pa in the bookend sequences) is about to send a trepidatious Wendy off to boarding school. Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 28 Apr. 2023 This has a trepidatious Stella not only agreeing to renovate her family's Victorian home with Pablo (aka The Sledgehammer), but also moving her impending nuptials to fiancé Jack (Selkin) up several months in a bid to make this their biggest and best episode yet. Dan Snierson, EW.com, 13 Oct. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'trepidatious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1904, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of trepidatious was in 1904

Dictionary Entries Near trepidatious

Cite this Entry

“Trepidatious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trepidatious. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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