Daring

How to spell daring

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce daring

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does daring mean?

1. adjectiveWilling to take bold risks; adventurous or audacious.
2. nounBoldness or willingness to take risks.

Daring in a sentence

• adjective

  The daring rescue made headlines around the world.

• noun

  His sheer daring on the mountain impressed even the seasoned guides.

• adjective

  Her daring plan to switch careers at fifty surprised her colleagues.

• noun

  The stunt required real skill and a great deal of daring.

Where does daring come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb durran, meaning 'to be bold' or 'to have the courage to do something', a verb that belonged to the Germanic family of so-called preterite-present verbs alongside relatives like can and shall. The base sense was always about possessing the nerve to act despite risk, and over the centuries the simple form dare gathered the present participle ending -ing to act as a describing word. By the late Middle Ages 'daring' was being used both as an adjective for a bold person or deed and as a noun naming the quality of boldness itself. Because it is built so transparently from the everyday verb dare, the spelling holds no real surprises: you simply add -ing and, as with most words ending in a silent or sounded e plus consonant pattern, the single r is kept rather than doubled. Its close kinship with confident, plain-English words is part of why it feels so natural to write.

How the word is built

• dare (verb, to have courage)
• -ing (adjective/noun suffix)