audacious

adjective au·da·cious \ ȯ-ˈdā-shəs \

|Updated on: 20 Jun 2018

Examples: audacious in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of audacious

1 a : intrepidly daring : adventurous

an audacious mountain climber

b : recklessly bold : rash

an audacious maneuver

2 : contemptuous of law, religion, or decorum : insolent

an audacious maverick

3 : marked by originality and verve

audacious experiments

—

audaciously

adverb

—

audaciousness

noun

See audacious defined for English-language learners

See audacious defined for kids

audacious was our Word of the Day on 01/14/2009. Hear the podcast!

Examples of audacious in a Sentence

Whatever made him think his audacious fiction would sell—especially after a lifetime of literary marginalization—is a mystery, but he has certainly been vindicated. With a rush of work that he did not begin publishing until he was in his forties, he won literary fame in Europe and Latin America. —Valerie Sayers, Commonweal, 13 July 2007
This is an audacious claim, and Kramer anticipates, even encourages, the controversy it might provoke. —Gary Greenberg, Harper's, August 2005
… Morgan Pressel, the top-ranked female amateur in the country, has charted a less audacious course. A 17-year-old scrapper who gained prominence by tying for second at the U.S. Women's Open in June, Pressel is satisfied with taking on and whipping her own kind. —E. M. Swift, Sports Illustrated, 8 Aug. 2005
… he owns and operates a seductively spacious jazz club. But that's his day job, his cover. He executes his audacious midnight burglaries outside of the city, working solo, mapping out every detail so that nothing can go wrong, then returning like a phantom. —Owen Gliberman, Entertainment Weekly, 20 July 2001
They have audacious plans for the new school.
This is her most audacious film so far.
She made an audacious decision to quit her job.

Recent Examples of audacious from the Web

Case in point is this much-ballyhooed heist thriller, based on a true story, about four young men who attempt to emulate their movie heroes by disguising themselves as old men and pulling off an audacious theft.

— cary darling, Houston Chronicle, "New movies: ‘Incredibles’ ‘Superfly’ return and ‘Tag’ for adults," 13 June 2018
This was an audacious move, particularly for a client state.

— adam entous, The New Yorker, "Donald Trump’s New World Order," 11 June 2018
That's how Culver City firm MedMen describes its pot shops in documents submitted as part of the company's most audacious plan yet: to become the nation's most valuable public cannabis company, worth more than $1 billion.

— shelby grad, latimes.com, "Essential California: USC President Nikias steps down amid uproar," 26 May 2018
The audacious plan for another son to shake Adam Silver’s hand is in motion.

— jake fischer, SI.com, "How a Summer Internship Spawned the Newest Venue for NBA Hopefuls," 21 May 2018
Pogba then sent an audacious effort from the halfway line well over Adrian's crossbar to sum up United's lack of ideas in attacking areas.

— kieran canning, chicagotribune.com, "Manchester United secure second place with draw at West Ham," 10 May 2018
Win McNamee/Getty Images US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is considering an audacious plan to bully Congress into approving a new version of NAFTA — but some experts think the plan could backfire.

— zeeshan aleem, Vox, "Trump wants to bully Congress into accepting a new NAFTA," 20 Apr. 2018
At around the same time as this meeting, a Peruvian entrepreneur living in São Paulo, Brazil, was formulating an audacious plan of his own.

— The Economist, "GenomicsSequencing the world," 23 Jan. 2018
An audacious thing for a woman to do, it was made more acceptable by her emphasis on her own unworthiness — a tactic used by talented women throughout history, claiming inadequacy while proving the opposite.

— sarah dunant, New York Times, "Who Was Vittoria Colonna? Just One of Italy’s Great Poets...," 1 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'audacious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Shakespeare used "audacious" seven times in his plays. That in itself wasn't exactly an act of bold originality. The word, which comes from the Latin root audac- ("bold"), had been around for decades. But the Bard was the first to use "audacious" in its "insolent" sense ("Obey, audacious traitor; kneel for grace," Henry VI Part 2), and he may have been the first to use the adverb "audaciously." "Audacious" itself was something of an innovation in the 16th century: it was one of the earliest "-acious" words in English. Subsequently, we've added lots of "-acious" adjectives to our lexicon, including "pugnacious," "loquacious," "voracious," and even, in the 19th century, "bodacious" (which is most likely a combination of "bold" and "audacious").

Origin and Etymology of audacious

Middle French audacieux, from audace boldness, from Latin audacia, from audac-, audax bold, from audēre to dare, from avidus eager — more at avid

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1550

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year