dare
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To defy or challenge.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dehrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɛɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To defy or challenge (someone to do something).
transitive
To have enough courage to meet or do something, go somewhere, etc.; to face up to.
To be courageous enough to try or do something
transitive
To terrify; to daunt.
noun
A challenge to prove courage.
Defiance; challenge.
us
Acronym of Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
The quality of daring; venturesomeness; boldness.
A small fish, the dace
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To defy or challenge (someone to do something).
Used this way, dare is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use dare
- “He could never refuse a dare.”noun
- “How dare you call my lawyer?”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Be dared to do something and not attempt it.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.