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Don't Be Afraid to Learn About Intrepid
If you’re going to name a ship, whether an aircraft carrier or an interstellar starship, you could do worse than to name it the Intrepid, as both the United States military and Star Trek writers have done, respectively. (Technically “Intrepid” is a class of Trek ships that includes the Voyager, etc., but you get the drift.) Intrepid, after all, comes from the Latin word intrepidus, itself formed by the combination of the prefix in-, meaning “not,” and the adjective trepidus, meaning “alarmed.” When not designating sea or space vessels, intrepid aptly describes anyone—from explorers to reporters—who ventures bravely into unknown territory, though often you’ll see the word loaded with irony, as in “an intrepid couch surfer endeavored to watch every installment of the beloved sci-fi series in chronological order.” Intrepid word lovers may be interested to know of the existence of trepid, meaning “fearful”; it predates intrepid but most are too trepid (or simply unaware of its existence) to use it.
Synonyms of intrepid
Examples of intrepid in a Sentence
Jonathan Chait, New York Times Book Review, 3 Feb. 2008
Author and explorer Dame Freya Stark was one of the most intrepid adventurers of all time. (T. E. Lawrence, no slouch in the travel department himself, called her "gallant" and "remarkable.")
—Kimberly Robinson, Travel & Leisure, December 1999
Meanwhile, the intrepid Florentine traveler Marco Polo had been to China and brought back with him a noodle dish that became Italian pasta …
—Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993
an intrepid explorer who probed parts of the rain forest never previously attempted
Cu Fleshman, Travel + Leisure, 13 Apr. 2026
The mellow Meyer, (discovered by the intrepid agricultural explorer Fred Meyer, alas, who mysteriously died during one of his Asian expeditions, leaves his legacy in the divine lemon that now bears his name), has become a chef’s favorite pick.
—Catharine Kaufman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Apr. 2026
Like its opponent, Denver rolls with an intrepid freshman goalie.
—Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2026
This new docuseries explores the intrepid work of former fundamentalist Christine Marie and videographer Tolga Katas in bringing down the sect's sadistic leader, Samuel Bateman.
—Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Intrepid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrepid. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026.
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intrepid
adjective
