audacious
adjective
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Fortune favors the bold—or, as ancient Romans are known to have said, “audentes Fortuna iuvat.” Audentes here is the present participle of the Latin verb audēre, meaning “to dare,” a word that also led, via several etymological twists and turns through the centuries, to the English adjective audacious. When it first appeared in English in the mid-1500s, audacious meant “intrepidly daring,” a sense we still use today when we apply the word to various feats of derring-do and those who dare to do them. Since then it has developed several additional meanings, including the closely related “recklessly bold” and “marked by originality and verve,” as in “her audacious new album heralds the future of hip-hop.” Of course, with audacity (another audēre descendent) comes risk that fortune, despite the maxim, doesn’t always favor: as fungi foragers know, there are sagacious mushroomers, and audacious mushroomers, but there are no sagacious audacious mushroomers.
Synonyms
Examples of audacious in a Sentence
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.
Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 1 Nov. 2024
Perhaps their most audacious collaboration yet, 144 Vanderbilt’s textured pink exterior commands attention at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and its namesake street in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood.
—Rachel Davies, Architectural Digest, 10 Oct. 2024
As such, Marlene embodies an audacious new archetype—and a righteous call for philanthropy in service of justice, not merely generosity.
—Darren Walker, TIME, 2 Oct. 2024
Like many of their peers, Jockstrap emerged from London’s music scene with a sprinkle of hype, some audacious ideas, and an elite music education to help pull them off.
—Pitchfork, 1 Oct. 2024
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“Audacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/audacious. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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audacious
adjective
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