ambitious
English
Etymology
From Middle English ambitious, from Old French *ambitieus, from Latin ambitiosus, from ambitio; see ambition. Compare with French ambitieux.
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA(key): /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪʃəs
Adjective
ambitious (comparative ambitiouser or more ambitious, superlative ambitiousest or most ambitious)
- Possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or other distinction.
- 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Man with the Twisted Lip,"
- As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a suspicion as to my real occupation.
- 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Man with the Twisted Lip,"
- Strongly desirous—followed by "of" or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something.
- Resulting from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition; showy; aspiring.
- an ambitious style
- Hard to achieve.
- 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
- A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […] . Stopping high-speed trains wastes energy and time, so why not simply slow them down enough for a moving platform to pull alongside?
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Usage notes
- Said of people, projects, plans, goals, etc.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
possessing, or controlled by, ambition
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strongly desirous
showy
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hard to achieve
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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References
- ambitious in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- ambitious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “ambitious” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “ambitious” in Microsoft's Encarta World English Dictionary, North American Edition (2007)
- "ambitious" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
- "ambitious" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
- “ambitious” in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2007)
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