bodacious
adjective
Did you know?
Some of our readers may know bodacious as a word that figured prominently in the lingo of the 1989 film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Others may recall the term's frequent use in the long-running "Snuffy Smith" comic strip. Neither the creators of the comic strip nor the movie can claim to have coined bodacious, which began appearing in print during the 1800s, but both likely contributed to its popularity. The exact origin of the word is uncertain, but it was most likely influenced by bold and audacious, and it may be linked to boldacious, a term from British dialect meaning "brazen" or "impudent."
Examples of bodacious in a Sentence
Dalton Ross, EW.com, 3 Apr. 2025
Others suspected there was more history to the bodacious look.
—Rosa Rahimi, CNN Money, 2 Apr. 2025
The man drenches her body in petroleum, then uses it to make expressionist paintings that decorate his bodacious seaside villa.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Feb. 2025
In 2018, our own Tennessean reporters ranked it the most bodacious bathroom in Nashville.
—Mackensy Lunsford, The Tennessean, 16 Apr. 2024
See All Example Sentences for bodacious
Cite this Entry
“Bodacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bodacious. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.
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