English Explanatory Dictionary

courage

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
  2. The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.
  3. The ability to maintain one's will or intent despite either the experience of fear, frailty, or frustration; or the occurrence of adversity, difficulty, defeat or reversal; moral fortitude.
verb
  1. To encourage.

Pronunciation

/ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/ /ˈkɝ.ɪd͡ʒ/ en-us-ne-courage.ogg en-us-courage.ogg /ˈkʊ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/ /kəˈredʒ/ [kɐ.ɾeːdʒ]

Word forms

courage courages couraging couraged

Etymology

From Middle English corage, from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Displaced Middle English elne, ellen, from Old English ellen (“courage, valor”).

Synonyms

audacity balls bield boldhead boldness bravehood braveness bravery courage courageousness daring fearlessness grit guts heart intrepidity intrepidness mood nerve ovaries pecker pluck spunk steel undauntedness valour

Antonyms

cowardice

Related words

cardiac bravado chutzpah cojones heroism impudence mettle piss and vinegar pith spirit brave hero fearlessness bield

Derived words

courageless courage of one's convictions courageous digital courage discourage Dutch courage encourage gather up one's courage liquid courage pluck up one's courage screw up one's courage take courage take one's courage in both hands
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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