bra·vu·ra
brə-ˈvyu̇r-ə 
brä-,
-ˈvu̇r-
1
music
: a musical passage requiring exceptional agility and technical skill in execution
2
: a florid brilliant style
3
: a show of daring or brilliance
Examples of bravura in a Sentence
Adjective
a truly bravura performance of the ballet that brought the crowd to its feet
Recent Examples on the Web
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 28 Mar. 2025
Its bravura one-shot episodes have received the lion’s share of the attention, but the searing intensity of Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new Netflix miniseries isn’t reducible to a single stylistic choice.
—Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2025
But Stranger is more than a bravura display to recall Chantal Akerman or Béla Tarr—its command of space and movement set the stage for an actor’s showcase and master class in narrative delineation that confirms Yang as one of China’s most exciting up-and-coming cinematic talents.
—Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 5 Mar. 2025
Every actor gets an aria-like monologue, which throws off the play’s rhythm, but at least each one is a bravura showpiece.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2025
This Morning, This Evening (a portrait of a rural Alabama community in which Ross embedded himself), to Nickel Boys, his impressionistic bravura fiction feature debut about two Black boys sent to a reform school in Jim Crow–era Florida.
—Lisa Wong MacAbasco, Vogue, 22 Feb. 2025
In a bravura theatrical performance, Hawke makes the genius truly pathetic.
—Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 18 Feb. 2025
Certainly, the many other bravura moments of The Return suggest a storyteller with enough juice to make even his most fanciful, esoteric ideas and characters into reality.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 16 Jan. 2025
Again and again, Han returns to images of imposition and projection, something distant and ghostly that sits right on top of the physical, likening the process, in a particularly bravura section, to trying to fix a shadow in place.
—Robert Rubsam, Vulture, 22 Jan. 2025
Fred Schruers, IndieWire, 27 Feb. 2025
In this balance lies the bravura, idiosyncratic source of Murakami’s popularity.
—Randy Boyagoda, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2024
Sanders, on the other hand — in the most outrageously, satisfyingly bravura role of his career — doubles down on the stereotype.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2023
Its most bravura trick is rooted less in a display of mastery than one of vulnerability.
—Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 28 June 2023
With all due respect to the bravura world-creation of Wakanda, what is likely Carter’s single most effective achievement is so simple and casual as to seem to have come straight from a uniform-supply warehouse.
—Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 24 May 2023
But at least Bay gave the viewers plenty of nonpareil CGI carnage to chew on, as with a bravura third act that tears through Chicago skyscrapers like sand castles, bouncing from one colossal set piece to the next.
—Nick Allen, Vulture, 4 Apr. 2023
No matter how bravura the substance of his disquisitions, this act, predictably, grew tiresome.
—Justin Driver, The Atlantic, 12 Aug. 2022
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Noun
To what end, all of this, beyond the chance to see a bravura performance from an actress on the cusp of greatness?
—Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 28 Mar. 2025
Its bravura one-shot episodes have received the lion’s share of the attention, but the searing intensity of Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new Netflix miniseries isn’t reducible to a single stylistic choice.
—Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2025
But Stranger is more than a bravura display to recall Chantal Akerman or Béla Tarr—its command of space and movement set the stage for an actor’s showcase and master class in narrative delineation that confirms Yang as one of China’s most exciting up-and-coming cinematic talents.
—Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 5 Mar. 2025
Every actor gets an aria-like monologue, which throws off the play’s rhythm, but at least each one is a bravura showpiece.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2025
This Morning, This Evening (a portrait of a rural Alabama community in which Ross embedded himself), to Nickel Boys, his impressionistic bravura fiction feature debut about two Black boys sent to a reform school in Jim Crow–era Florida.
—Lisa Wong MacAbasco, Vogue, 22 Feb. 2025
In a bravura theatrical performance, Hawke makes the genius truly pathetic.
—Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 18 Feb. 2025
Certainly, the many other bravura moments of The Return suggest a storyteller with enough juice to make even his most fanciful, esoteric ideas and characters into reality.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 16 Jan. 2025
Again and again, Han returns to images of imposition and projection, something distant and ghostly that sits right on top of the physical, likening the process, in a particularly bravura section, to trying to fix a shadow in place.
—Robert Rubsam, Vulture, 22 Jan. 2025
Adjective
Thus enfranchised, Hackman took on Richard Harris’ elegant killer English Bob with gusto, mixing in a bravura oratorical gavotte with ample kicks to the ribs, and summoning the Best Supporting Actor trophy.
—Fred Schruers, IndieWire, 27 Feb. 2025
In this balance lies the bravura, idiosyncratic source of Murakami’s popularity.
—Randy Boyagoda, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2024
Sanders, on the other hand — in the most outrageously, satisfyingly bravura role of his career — doubles down on the stereotype.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2023
Its most bravura trick is rooted less in a display of mastery than one of vulnerability.
—Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 28 June 2023
With all due respect to the bravura world-creation of Wakanda, what is likely Carter’s single most effective achievement is so simple and casual as to seem to have come straight from a uniform-supply warehouse.
—Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 24 May 2023
But at least Bay gave the viewers plenty of nonpareil CGI carnage to chew on, as with a bravura third act that tears through Chicago skyscrapers like sand castles, bouncing from one colossal set piece to the next.
—Nick Allen, Vulture, 4 Apr. 2023
No matter how bravura the substance of his disquisitions, this act, predictably, grew tiresome.
—Justin Driver, The Atlantic, 12 Aug. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Bravura.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bravura. Accessed 7 May. 2025.
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