Courageous

How to spell courageous

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce courageous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does courageous mean?

1. adjectiveShowing bravery or willingness to face danger, difficulty, or pain.

Courageous in a sentence

• The firefighters made a courageous rescue from the burning flat.

• It was a courageous decision to leave a secure job and start her own business.

Where does courageous come from?

Language of origin: French

The word goes back to the Latin cor, meaning 'heart', which gave rise to the Old French corage (later courage), a noun describing the heart as the seat of feeling, spirit, and bravery. English borrowed the adjective form, courageous, through Anglo-Norman and Old French during the 1300s, where it meant 'full of heart' and therefore brave. The sense narrowed over time from a general 'spirited' quality to the modern idea of bravery in the face of danger or difficulty. The same cor root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'cordial' and 'core', a reminder that for older speakers courage was quite literally a matter of the heart. The spelling trap is the kept e between the g and the -ous: because the soft g sound of courage must be preserved, the e stays, giving 'courageous' rather than 'couragous'.

How the word is built

• courage (from Latin cor: heart)
• -ous (adjective suffix, full of)