courage

Formscourages, couraging, couraged

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The ability to overcome one's fear and do things that one finds frightening.

   Facing his lifelong fear of heights, he summoned the courage to climb the tower.

   It takes courage to walk alone into a room full of strangers.

   Similarbravery, nerve, daring, pluck

   Oppositecowardice, fear

   Note

   Here fear is present and beaten, not missing. That is the distinction Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson (1897) draws: "resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear." It sets this sense apart from the steady, unafraid confidence. In use it is usually uncountable and often appears in the phrase pluck up the courage to, followed by the frightening act itself: to tell her, to speak.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The ability to hold to one's purpose and principles despite fear, hardship, or repeated setbacks; moral fortitude.

   Despite three failed attempts, she had the courage to try once more.

   It takes moral courage to admit a mistake in front of your colleagues.

   Similarfortitude, resolve, determination, grit

   Oppositecowardice

   Note

   Endurance rather than daring: the courage to keep going through grief, defeat or a cause already lost. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) puts it as knowing "you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway." This is the sense behind moral courage. Unlike courage in the face of fear, it needs no single frightening moment, only a will that holds.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The quality of being confident and not easily frightened or intimidated, while remaining careful and considerate.

   His courage on the witness stand was matched by a careful choice of words.

   Leading with courage means staying confident without becoming reckless or dismissive of others.

   Similarbravery, boldness, confidence, fearlessness

   Oppositecowardice, fear, timidity

   Note

   Behind every sense of the word lies a heart: Old French corage, from Latin cor, the root that also reaches English as cardiac by way of Greek. The word displaced the native Old English ellen. Here courage is a steady temperament rather than a single act. It can rise and fall, as in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813): "My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."

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