courage
The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
Other meanings
The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.
“He plucked up the courage to tell her how he felt.”
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.
Synonyms
- bravery
Related words
- courageless
- courage of one's convictions
- courageous
- discourage
- encourage
- digital courage
- Dutch courage
- liquid courage
- pluck up one's courage
- screw up one's courage
- take courage
- gather up one's courage
Example sentences
Word history
From Old English "ellen" (courage, valor).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “courage” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.