Bravery

How to spell bravery

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce bravery

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bravery mean?

1. nounCourageous behaviour; the quality of facing danger, pain, or difficulty without being overcome by fear.

Bravery in a sentence

• The firefighter received a medal for her bravery during the rescue.

• It took real bravery to admit the mistake in front of the whole board.

Where does bravery come from?

Language of origin: French

The word grew out of the adjective 'brave', which English adopted from the French 'brave' in the sixteenth century, meaning bold and courageous. French had in turn taken it from the Italian 'bravo', and here lies a surprise: that Italian word originally carried the rougher senses of 'wild', 'savage', or even 'cut-throat', and it is widely traced back to the Latin 'pravus', meaning 'crooked' or 'depraved', or possibly to 'barbarus', 'barbarian'. Over time the negative edge softened into admiration for fearless daring rather than lawless ferocity. English then added the noun-forming ending '-ery' (the same one seen in 'slavery' and 'mockery') to name the quality itself, giving 'bravery'. The spelling trap is simply remembering that the silent final 'e' of 'brave' stays put before '-ry', producing 'brav-e-ry' rather than 'bravry'.

How the word is built

• brave (bold, courageous)
• -ery (noun suffix forming a quality or state)