audacious

Showing willingness to take bold risks; recklessly daring.

Adjective

  1. Showing willingness to take bold risks; recklessly daring.
    • It was an audacious thing for her to attempt, but boldness had often served her turn before. - 1871, Anthony Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds:
    • That such a safe adaptation could come of The Hunger Games speaks more to the trilogy’s commercial ascent than the book’s actual content, which is audacious and savvy in its dark calculations. - 2012 March 22, Scott...
    • The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in...

    Synonyms: bold daring courageous intrepid venturesome temeritous temerarious

    Antonyms: shy cautious prudent

  2. Impudent, insolent.

    Synonyms: impudent presumptuous brazen cheeky

Origin

From Latin audacia (“boldness”), from audax (“bold”), from audeō (“to be bold, to dare”).

Forms

more audacious most audacious

Related

audacity outdaciousness

Derived

audaciously audaciousness boldacious unaudacious