Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Fearless daring; intrepidity.
  • noun Bold or insolent heedlessness of restraints, as of those imposed by prudence, propriety, or convention.
  • noun An act or instance of intrepidity or insolent heedlessness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Boldness; daring; confidence; intrepidity.
  • noun Reckless daring; venturesomeness.
  • noun Audaciousness; presumptuous impudence; effrontery: in a bad sense, and often implying a contempt of law or moral restraint: as, “arrogant audacity,”
  • noun An audacious person or act.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Daring spirit, resolution, or confidence; venturesomeness.
  • noun Reckless daring; presumptuous impudence; -- implying a contempt of law or moral restraints.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Insolent boldness, especially when imprudent or unconventional.
  • noun Fearlessness, intrepid daring.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun aggressive boldness or unmitigated effrontery
  • noun fearless daring

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin audacitas, from Latin audax ("bold"), from audeō ("I am bold, I dare").

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Examples

Comments

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  • One of Obama's keywords.

    Last week, I heard a conversation in the train: a man asked a woman (who was reading The audacity of hope) about that word. He didn't know its meaning.

    Was it a good choice for a politician's book title, then?

    September 23, 2008

  • It's a pretty common word. I'm surprised the man didn't know it.

    September 23, 2008

  • Especially if he was interested enough to pick up the book...

    September 23, 2008

  • Perhaps not a good choice for a politician, but a good choice for a leader.

    September 23, 2008

  • Sounds as though the woman was reading the book and the man asked about it, no? Either way...common enough word.

    September 24, 2008

  • Oh. Sorry, I got that wrong...

    September 24, 2008

  • The audacity! ;->

    September 24, 2008

  • "she had the audacity to just copy my test answers"(i came up with that sentence)

    September 23, 2010

  • "Nothing like the blood and meat of the young. You can taste the audacity of hope". "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan

    February 25, 2012