Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Excessive boldness or rashness; foolhardiness or recklessness.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Extreme venturesomeness; rashness; recklessness.
- noun Synonyms Rashness, Temerity (see
rashness ); venturesomeness, presumption, foolhardiness.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Unreasonable contempt of danger; extreme venturesomeness; rashness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun not countable
Reckless boldness ;foolish bravery . - noun countable An act or case of reckless boldness.
- noun not countable
Effrontery ;impudence .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun fearless daring
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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They were, naturally, delighted at everything they saw, and admired her model greatly: but were, nevertheless, loud in their expressions of wonder at what they termed our temerity in venturing on so long a voyage in such a mere boat.
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She even persists in these things, and is honestly horrified at what she calls the temerity of going without them.
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Lee had two surgeons in his corps, Irvine and Skinner; Irvine was apt to expose himself to danger, but Skinner, although he had on one occasion killed his adversary in a duel, was a coward; and the method he now took to punish Irvine for what he called his temerity, was not to dress his wounds until the last.
A Sketch of the life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and a history of his brigade
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In a written statement, Doğan condemned what he described as the temerity of some members of the ruling party in resorting to threats and untruths to silence the media.
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In a written statement, Doğan condemned what he described as the temerity of some members of the ruling party in resorting to threats and untruths to silence the media.
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This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do our best to kill them, of course, but all the outrage at their temerity is just an indulgence.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Why we aren’t putting Omar Khadr on trial
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Only Germans would be enraged by the temerity of it, or would call it temerity.
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General Pierce was as distinguished for what we must term his temerity in personal exposure, as for the higher traits of leadership, wherever there was an opportunity for their display.
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In this band of gallant men, it is not too much to say, General Pierce was as distinguished for what we must term his temerity in personal exposure, as for the higher traits of leadership, wherever there was an opportunity for their display.
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Wonder at his temerity was the impression made by the news, but wonder unmixed with apprehension.
jaymediane commented on the word temerity
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.’
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
February 26, 2008
reallifepixel commented on the word temerity
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
November 30, 2009
100000232338334 commented on the word temerity
Stan raised his light eyebrows at my temerity. -Charlaine Harris, Living Dead in Dallas
December 11, 2010
dailyword commented on the word temerity
This word was used in "To Kill A Mockingbird" when Atticus was defending Mr. Robinson at his trial.
June 20, 2012
WanderlustDreamer commented on the word temerity
Temerity is used in Chapter XXII of "The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer.
March 3, 2015
Silpa commented on the word temerity
No child has the temerity to go in the rundown house at the end of the street and see if it is haunted.
October 29, 2017