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Don't Be Afraid to Learn About Intrepid
If you’re going to name a ship, whether an aircraft carrier or an interstellar starship, you could do worse than to name it the Intrepid, as both the United States military and Star Trek writers have done, respectively. (Technically “Intrepid” is a class of Trek ships that includes the Voyager, etc., but you get the drift.) Intrepid, after all, comes from the Latin word intrepidus, itself formed by the combination of the prefix in-, meaning “not,” and the adjective trepidus, meaning “alarmed.” When not designating sea or space vessels, intrepid aptly describes anyone—from explorers to reporters—who ventures bravely into unknown territory, though often you’ll see the word loaded with irony, as in “an intrepid couch surfer endeavored to watch every installment of the beloved sci-fi series in chronological order.” Intrepid word lovers may be interested to know of the existence of trepid, meaning “fearful”; it predates intrepid but most are too trepid (or simply unaware of its existence) to use it.
Synonyms of intrepid
Examples of intrepid in a Sentence
Jonathan Chait, New York Times Book Review, 3 Feb. 2008
Author and explorer Dame Freya Stark was one of the most intrepid adventurers of all time. (T. E. Lawrence, no slouch in the travel department himself, called her "gallant" and "remarkable.")
—Kimberly Robinson, Travel & Leisure, December 1999
Meanwhile, the intrepid Florentine traveler Marco Polo had been to China and brought back with him a noodle dish that became Italian pasta …
—Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993
an intrepid explorer who probed parts of the rain forest never previously attempted
Jeff Spry, Space.com, 30 Mar. 2026
Among them have been intrepid, talented chefs, undeterred by the cold, who have slowly but surely created a remarkably diverse food scene, using the agricultural bounty that defines the region.
—David Farley, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Mar. 2026
An intrepid British explorer, Peter MacNab, led the first team through this epic underworld of caverns the height of skyscrapers.
—Nicole Young, CBS News, 29 Mar. 2026
Throughout the summit, the networkers were, by and large, wary of me, a representative of the fake news media evidently out to ruin their lives and stymie their future careers—apart from one intrepid college freshman who asked me about internship opportunities at this magazine.
—Gaby Del Valle, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for intrepid
Cite this Entry
“Intrepid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrepid. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
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intrepid
adjective
