Make Your Point: AUDACITY

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pronounce AUDACITY:

aw DASS uh tee

connect this word to others:

If you have audacity, maybe that's a good thing: you have bravery, boldness, daring, m___le ("strength of character").

But audacity can easily veer off into rudeness, foolishness, disrespect, imp_r___ence ("inappropriate straightforwardness").

Which makes audacity a richly interesting word, I think! Whether it's good or bad depends on the situation, and on the person who's interpreting that situation.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Audacity" traces back to the Latin audere, "to dare, or to be bold," and has been around in English since the 1400s.

It originally meant "boldness or confidence," but it quickly grew to mean, also, "a rude, stupid, or destructive level of boldness or confidence."

Today, we still use both of those meanings.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the uncountable kind: "The administration abruptly fired hundreds of workers, then, realizing their mistake, had the audacity to demand that they return to their jobs."

Other forms:

The adjective is "audacious," pronounced "aw DAY shuss." Hear it.

And the adverb is "audaciously."

how to use it:

Pick the word "audacity" when you want a clear, common, formal, emphatic synonym of "guts," "nerve," or "recklessness." Say that someone's actions required or showed audacity, or say that someone had the audacity to do something. Or, talk about the audacity of someone's actions.

To use the adjective, talk about audacious people or things, such as audacious plans, schemes, projects, creations, crimes, criminals, comments, requests, and assumptions.

examples:

"Brian Thompson's murder on Dec. 4 shocked many, not only for its audacity — he was gunned down in broad daylight outside a Manhattan hotel — but for its symbolism. As the head of UnitedHealthcare, Thompson was at the helm of one of the largest health insurers in the nation, a company whose name has become synonymous with both access and frustration."
— Ashlie D. Stevens, Salon, 11 December 2024

"'I love you too,' I said so low even I couldn't hear it, but my heart still thumped wildly at the audacity of it. The bus rolled on, filled with dreams."
— Homer Hickam, Rocket Boys, 1998

has this page helped you understand "audacity"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "audacity" without saying "boldness" or "rudeness."

try it out:

As we saw in the examples above, audacity can manifest in actions both tender and brutal: it takes audacity to tell someone for the first time that you love them—or to commit an assassination.

Let's look at an example with a little more nuance. The physician Siddhartha Mukherjee noted: "It is a testament to Darwin's scientific audacity that he was not particularly bothered by the prospect of human descent from apelike ancestors."

In other words, Charles Darwin didn't seem to care that his research might rob his own entire species of its perceived special place in the universe. And that speaks to his audacity.

In your view, was Darwin's audacity good or bad? Did it manifest in tenderness, brutality, both, or something else entirely?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Fill In For the Poet."

I'll give you a few lines from a poem, with a blank where a word that we've studied before appears, along with the word's definition. See if you can come up with it. If you can't, that's fine: fill in the blank to your satisfaction.

To check out some examples, head here.

Try this today:

From Kay Ryan's poem "Surfaces:"

Take glass.
Sometimes it outlasts
its underside. Take reefs.

The private lives of surfaces
are innocent, not _____.

Definition: "having strayed from the path of honesty."

To see the word the poet chose, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. One opposite of AUDACIOUS is

A. DEAF.
B. QUIET.
C. COWARDLY.

2. Barack Obama explained the title of his memoir The Audacity of Hope as an American tendency "to believe _____ that we could restore a sense of community to a nation torn by conflict."

A. after a taste of success
B. despite all the evidence to the contrary
C. based on the strength of our grassroots movements

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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