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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Foolhardy disregard of danger; recklessness.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Extreme venturesomeness; rashness; recklessness.
  2. n. Synonyms Rashness, Temerity (see rashness); venturesomeness, presumption, foolhardiness.

Wiktionary

  1. n. not countable Reckless boldness; foolish bravery.
  2. n. countable An act or case of reckless boldness.
  3. n. not countable Effrontery; impudence.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Unreasonable contempt of danger; extreme venturesomeness; rashness.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. fearless daring

Etymologies

  1. From Latin temeritās ("chance, accident, rashness"), from temerē ("by chance, casually, rashly"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English temerite, from Old French, from Latin temeritās, from temere, rashly. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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  • dailyword This word was used in "To Kill A Mockingbird" when Atticus was defending Mr. Robinson at his trial. Jun 20, 2012

  • Noelle Knight Stan raised his light eyebrows at my temerity. -Charlaine Harris, Living Dead in Dallas Dec 10, 2010

  • reallifepixel Word History: Today's Good Word is a burnishing of 15th century French témérité, inherited from Latin temeritas "happenstance, accident, at random", a noun derived from the adverb temere "by chance, accidentally". "Blindly" or "in the dark" are other fitting translations of this word because it comes from a Proto-Indo-European word, temes- "dark". We find relatives in Sanskrit tamas- "darkness" and Russian t'ma "darkness" and tëmnyi "dark".

    Dr. Goodword, alphaDictionary.com Nov 30, 2009

  • jaymediane Temerity n. excessive confidence or boldness; audacity.

    Implies exposing oneself needlessly to danger while failing to estimate one's chances of success.

    ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin temeritas, from temere ‘rashly.’

    He didn't know that in some places, like the country that Rahel came form, various kinds of despair competed for primacy. And that personal despair could never be desperate enough. That something happened when personal turmoil dropped by at the wayside shrine of the vast, violent, circling, driving, ridiculous, insane, unfeasible public turmoil of a nation. That Big God howled like a hot wind, and demanded obeisance. Then Small God (cozy and contained, private and limited) came away cauterized, laughing numbly at his own temerity" (Roy 20)


    Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
    Feb 26, 2008

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‘temerity’ has been looked up 5067 times, loved by 44 people, added to 156 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.