Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Fearless daring; intrepidity.
- n. Bold or insolent heedlessness of restraints, as of those imposed by prudence, propriety, or convention.
- n. An act or instance of intrepidity or insolent heedlessness: warned the students than any audacities committed during the graduation ceremony would be punished.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Boldness; daring; confidence; intrepidity.
- n. Reckless daring; venturesomeness.
- n. Audaciousness; presumptuous impudence; effrontery: in a bad sense, and often implying a contempt of law or moral restraint: as, “arrogant audacity,”
- n. An audacious person or act. Synonyms Hardihood.
Wiktionary
- n. Insolent boldness, especially when imprudent or unconventional.
- n. Fearlessness, intrepid daring.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Daring spirit, resolution, or confidence; venturesomeness.
- n. Reckless daring; presumptuous impudence; -- implying a contempt of law or moral restraints.
WordNet 3.0
- n. aggressive boldness or unmitigated effrontery
- n. fearless daring
Etymologies
- From Medieval Latin audacitas, from Latin audax ("bold"), from audeō ("I am bold, I dare"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Indeed, the milder manners of the patrician body were ill suited to resist this ermined demagogue, whose motto through life was _audacity, again audacity, and always audacity_.”
“Joe was practicing what I call the audacity of veracity.”
“I think the skittish ConservaDems are wrong on the substance and the politics, a little audacity is what Dems and the country need, but one raised eyebrow from David Broder and an interactive poll about socialism from al Foxeera is enough to send the likes of McCaskill and Webb heading for the hills and hiding under their moist-mattressed beds.”
Matthew Yglesias » Setback for Public Option Revival as Rockefeller Says No
“Is there any way that I can do this in audacity? place head in bucket record sound”
“The president I believe is familiar with the word audacity," he said.”
“Its creative and artistic audacity is paralleled only by the sheer exuberance with which creators Kevin and Kerry Conran spin their tale.”
“Mary Frances Bragiel, is the word audacity too harsh?”
“I play a cd with kscd, then kill it correctly; when I call audacity, it responds with the message”
“In every war there’s a transition from peacetime military, where because there are no real battles the balance shifts to preserving the unit and audacity more likely results in reprimand, to a wartime military where audacity is a battle-winning virtue.”
“And just as it was against Clinton, unconventional audacity is the hallmark of his plan to beat John McCain — audacity and Plouffe’s characteristic determination to keep close tabs on every phase of the campaign while maintaining one of the lowest profiles in national politics.”
The Early Word: Seeking the Hispanic Vote - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘audacity’.
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PHIL - vocabulary of thinking
philosophy, Socratic, dialogue, philosopher, Athenian, philosophical, politic, Greek, method, death, ancient, believe and 243 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Energetic
braze, raze, brisance, brisant, rive, catalyze, whipsaw, crack, actinic, sublimate, animate, vitalize and 88 more...
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Words that piss me off....
What word really gets under your skin, drives you crazy, nuts or simply makes you see red?
like, far out, man, dude, takeaway, outside the box, utilize, frequent flyer, aversion, backlog, downsizing, audacity and 1 more...
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September Words-11337
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
flabbergasted, discombobulated, inclination, serendipity, savvy, profound, incarnation, myriad, confiscate, audacity, deciduous, adieu and 79 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
niglets, aw, flakey, shiznit, thatch, sexy, bummers, hotty, eargasms, ratchetry, weird, fab and 457 more... -
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Words
Playa
schadenfreude, quixotic, serendipity, loquacious, ubiquitous, aforementioned, inherently, superfluous, dissonance, tersely, poignant, plethora and 108 more...
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BuffaloBen's Words
sycamore, wipfel, rohlingsspindel, gorgeous, flamboyance, anschmiegen, pengpeng, zuckerhut, revolver, troubleshooter, breeze, dandy and 228 more...
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Sophisticated Words Used by President...
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Wharton, Edith. Age of Innocence. 1920
A list of difficult words for L2-12 learners.
Faust, erection, metropolitan, splendor, shabby, conservatives, cherished, inconvenient, clung, acoustics, coupe, scramble and 261 more...
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cxfx's list
callipygous, scaphism, ubermorgen, handschuhschneeba..., farctate, autohagiography, autolatry, spindrift, feculent, verisimilitude, brobdingnagian, ineluctable and 205 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for audacity.

Louises "Nothing like the blood and meat of the young. You can taste the audacity of hope". "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan Feb 25, 2012
Charnell mack "she had the audacity to just copy my test answers"(i came up with that sentence) Sep 23, 2010
reesetee The audacity! ;-> Sep 23, 2008
chained_bear Oh. Sorry, I got that wrong... Sep 23, 2008
reesetee Sounds as though the woman was reading the book and the man asked about it, no? Either way...common enough word. Sep 23, 2008
frindley Perhaps not a good choice for a politician, but a good choice for a leader. Sep 23, 2008
chained_bear Especially if he was interested enough to pick up the book... Sep 23, 2008
reesetee It's a pretty common word. I'm surprised the man didn't know it. Sep 23, 2008
Prolagus 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? Sep 23, 2008