Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Ambitious |
AmbitiousAdjective1. Having a strong desire for success or achievement. 2. Requiring full use of your abilities or resources; "ambitious schedule"; "performed the most challenging task without a mistake". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "ambitious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Ambitious \Am*bi"tious\, adjective. [Latin expression ambitiosus: compare to the French expression ambitieux. See Ambition.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonym: AmbitiousSynonym: challenging (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: unambitious (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Desire | Aspiring, ambitious, vaulting, skyaspiring, high-reaching. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ambitious |
| English words defined with "ambitious": aim, Ambitionist, ambitiously, artful, aspirant, aspire, aspirer ♦ but then ♦ determinedly, disingenuous ♦ energy ♦ get-up-and-go ♦ High-reaching, hopeful ♦ on the other hand, oral personality, Ostentate, overambitious ♦ praetorian, pretorian, push ♦ shoot for ♦ then again ♦ wannabe, wannabee, with ambition. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "ambitious": Aholibamah, Aronteus, Asnapper ♦ Eagles ♦ Lace, Learning ♦ March ♦ Nobleman, NoteCards ♦ Oblivion ♦ Patriotism ♦ Warming-pan, WORMS. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You've grown very ambitious in your hatred. (Spartacus; writing credit: Howard Fast; Dalton Trumbo) My first wife was clever, my second was ambitious, but my third Thomas, if you want to be happy, marry a girl like my sweet little Jane. (The Private Life of Henry VIII; writing credit: Lajos Bir; Arthur Wimperis) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Ambitious Prince (1965) Ambitious Ethel (1916) Broke But Ambitious (1916) Ambitious Butler (1912) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Little but ambitious party: if they had only let him alone, I would have done for him.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | It was an ambitious dream.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The First block of residences in Boston was built in 1793 on Franklin Street. The Tontine Crescent, so-called from its shape, contained sixteen houses ... it was one of Charles Bulfinch's most ambitious enterprises.Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
(Decimus Junius Juvenalis) Juvenal | Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty. |
Decimus Junius Juvenal | We all live in a state of ambitious poverty. |
James Russell Lowell | His more ambitious works may be defined as careless thinking carefully versified. |
Louisa May Alcott | It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women. |
Oliver Goldsmith | The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery. |
Penn | The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune. |
Russell H. Conwell | Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. |
Shakespeare | The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. |
William Shakespeare | As he was valiant, I honor him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | King James the first, in his speech to the parliament, 1603, tells them thus, I will ever prefer the weal of the public, and of the whole commonwealth, in making of good laws and constitutions, to any particular and private ends of mine; thinking ever the wealth and weal of the commonwealth to be my greatest weal and worldly felicity; a point wherein a lawful king doth directly differ from a tyrant: for I do acknowledge, that the special and greatest point of difference that is between a rightful king and an usurping tyrant, is this, that whereas the proud and ambitious tyrant doth think his kingdom and people are only ordained for satisfaction of his desires and unreasonable appetites, the righteous and just king doth by the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the wealth and property of his people. (Second Treatise of Government) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Hamlet | William Shakespeare | The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | They often make ambitious claims about results and minimal side effects, especially for advanced cancers. (references) | |
The Human Genome Project is an ambitious effort to understand the hereditary instructions that make each of us unique. (references) | ||
The discovery by scientists that mosquitoes carried the disease unleashed a flurry of ambitious public health measures designed to stamp out malaria. (references) | ||
Business | Polish ports have presented very ambitious development plans. (references) | |
Skavsta has already embarked on an ambitious expansion program. (references) | ||
China's two shipbuilding groups have also projected ambitious targets for the next five years. (references) | ||
Economic History | Morocco | Ambitious plans are scheduled to modernize and extend the network. (references) |
Bulgaria | Bulgaria's military is currently undergoing an ambitious restructuring program. (references) | |
Senegal | The country, nevertheless, has limited means with which to implement ambitious ideas. (references) | |
Human Rights | Chile | Even with this ambitious construction program, the growing prison population is projected to continue to exceed the space available. (references) |
Ecuador | In 1998 the Government decreed an ambitious National Human Rights Plan with the goal of preventing, penalizing, and eradicating human rights violations in the country. (references) | |
Bulgaria | In 2000 the Government began an ambitious training program to upgrade the expertise of the judiciary with the help of international donor organizations, which produced limited results, according to observers. (references) | |
Political Economy | ALGERIA | This program is very ambitious. (references) |
Indonesia | In January 2001, the government began an ambitious and massive decentralization of political and economic authority to the districts. (references) | |
Greece | Since 1999, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart Ismael Cem have been engaged in ambitious efforts to improve traditionally poor relations. (references) | |
Political Rights | Eritrea | The PFDJ still has not fulfilled the ambitious program that it initially outlined for a transition to a democratically elected government by 1997. Elections, originally scheduled for 1997, never have been held. (references) |
Trade | Botswana | SADC's most ambitious protocol to date is its Trade Protocol, signed in August 1996 by eleven member states (Angola was absent, DROC and Seychelles joined SADC later). (references) |
Nicaragua | In March 1999, the National Assembly passed an ambitious tax package that put Nicaragua ahead of the rest of Central American countries in lowering tariffs and reducing exemptions. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | OBLIVION, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame's eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John Adams | 1797-1801 | A single assembly is apt to grow ambitious, and after a time will not hesitate to vote itself perpetual. |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | There are already those who, indifferent to principle themselves and prone to suspect the want of it in others, charge us with ambitious designs and insidious policy. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | It's ambitious and achievable, but it's not enough. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Ambitious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.03% of the time. "Ambitious" is used about 1,539 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.03% | 1,524 | 5,362 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.97% | 15 | 90,616 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,539 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "ambitious": ambitious project ♦ be ambitious ♦ be ambitious of. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "ambitious": ambitious-enterprising. | |
Ending with "ambitious": over-ambitious. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
ambitious | 12 |
ambitious card | 6 |
ambitious card routine | 5 |
ambitious guest | 3 |
ambitious production | 3 |
ambitious copy lover | 2 |
ambitious outsider | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "ambitious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | ambisieus. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | ambicioz (aspiring, go ahead, greedy for, highflier, Highflyer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | طموح (ambition, aspirant, aspiration, careerist, fly high, goal, pretension, pretentious, pretentiousness), شديد التوق. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | смел (adventurous, audacious, bold, brave, courageous, daring, dashing, gallant, game, gamy, gritty, gutsy, high-hearted, high-spirited, manful, manly, martial, mettled, mettlesome, plucky, provocative, slashing, spirited, spunky, stalwart, stout, stouthearted, thoroughbred, valiant, venturesome), славолюбив (vainglorious), честолюбив (aspirant), жаден (avid, concupiscent, craving, droughty, dry, eager, hungry, thirsty), амбициозен (aspiring). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 雄心勃勃, 有雄心 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | ambiciózní (big), velkolepý (awe inspiring, gorgeous, grand, magnificent, monumental, rich, splendid), ctižádostivý (competitive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | eerzuchtig, ambitieus (full of zeal, zealous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | ambicia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | framasøkin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | نامجو, جاه طلب , ارزومند (Anxious, Avid, Desirous, Solicitous, Wishful, Wistful), بلندهمت (Chivalrous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | kunnianhimoinen. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | ambitieux (ambitiously). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | ehrgeizig (ambitiously, aspiring). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | φιλόδοξοσ (emulous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | ימרן (claimant, pretender, smart aleck), ימר י (highfaluting, overweening, pretentious), שאפתן (careerist), שאפת י, שאפ י, חרוץ (active, assiduous, diligent, industrious, laborious, natty, sedulous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | becsvágyó (aspiring), ambiciózus. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | ambisius. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | ambizioso (ambitiously, aspiring). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 野心家 (ambitious person), 雄図 (ambitious plan, grand project), 梁山泊 (place of assemblage for the bold and ambitious), 壮" (ambitious undertaking), 壮図 (ambitious undertaking, grand scheme), 勇図 (ambitious undertaking). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | そうと (ambitious undertaking, grand scheme, monks, priests), りょうざ"ぱく (place of assemblage for the bold and ambitious), ゆうと (ambitious plan, ambitious undertaking, brave enterprise, grand project), やし"か (ambitious person). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 야심 있". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | sonaasagh (haughty), raadagh (pushing), mooaralagh (arrogant, arrogant or haughty person, big-headed, conceited, dignified, haughty; presumptuous, imperious, insolent, majestic, ostentatious, presumptuous, proud, vain, vain haughty), gloyrviandagh (careerist, fond of glory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | ærgjerrig. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | ambisioso. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ambitiousay ambicioso (aspiring, covetous, greedy, pushful). (various references) ambiţios (aspiring, high-aimed, stubborn). (various references) честолюбивый (ambitions, aspirant), претенциозный (flatulent, pretentious). (various references) ambiciozan, slavoljubiv (aspiring), častoljubiv. (various references) ambicioso (ambitiously, aspiring, careerist, eager, grandiose, lieu, pushful, pushing). (various references) ambitiös (zealous), ärelysten, äregirig. (various references) mapagpita, mapaglayon, mapaghangád. (various references) tutkulu (hellbent, passionate, sultry, warm blooded). (various references) що домога"ться, честолюбний (aspiring, emulate, emulous), вишуканий (accomplished, becoming, chic, choice, courtly, dainty, delicate, distinguished, dressmaker, exquisite, fine, foppish, kid glove, minion, nice, nutty, polished, polite, precious, quaint, recherche, trim, way up), вигадливий (artsy-craftsy, arty-crafty, baroque, fancy, niggled, notionate, overwrought), претензійний (artsy-craftsy, arty-crafty, attitudinizing, pretentious, rococo). (various references) có nhiều khát vọng có nhiều tham vọng, có nhiều ho i bão. (various references) uchelgeisiol, gorfynt (envy, jealous, jealousy, pride, proud). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | ambitiosa. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ambitious": ambitiously, ambitiousness, ambitiousnesses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "ambitious": overambitious, superambitious, unambitious. (additional references) | |
Words containing "ambitious": overambitiousness, overambitiousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Ambitious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Abbatibus, abitious, ambagibus, ambagious, ambicious, ambigious, ambisious, ambitiosus, ambitiuous, ambitous, ambixious, amibitious, amitious, amoitious, embitious, umbitious. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ambitious" (pronounced ambi"shus) |
| 4 | -i" sh u s | auspicious, capricious, delicious, expeditious, factitious, fictitious, inauspicious, injudicious, judicious, malicious, nutritious, pernicious, propitious, repetitious, seditious, superstitious, surreptitious, suspicious, vicious. |
| 3 | -sh u s | anxious, atrocious, audacious, capacious, cautious, conscientious, conscious, contentious, efficacious, facetious, fallacious, ferocious, flirtatious, fractious, gracious, hellacious, herbaceous, infectious, loquacious, luscious, nauseous, noxious, obnoxious, ostentatious, overambitious, precious, precocious, predaceous, pretentious, pugnacious, rambunctious, rapacious, salacious, sebaceous, semiprecious, spacious, specious, subconscious, tenacious, tendentious, unconscious, unpretentious, vexatious, vivacious, voracious. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-i-i-m-o-s-t-u" | |
-2 letters: stibium, subatom. | |
-3 letters: ambits, autism, biotas, iambus, miaous, obiism, ostium, subito, submit, tibias. | |
-4 letters: about, abuts, ambit, ambos, atoms, autos, baits, bimas, biota, boast, boats, botas, bouts, iambi, iambs, iotas, maist, mauts, miaou, mitis, moats, moist, obias, obits, omits, ostia, sabot, sambo, stoai, stoma, tabus, tamis, tibia, tombs, tsuba, tubas, umbos. | |
-5 letters: abos, abut. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-i-i-m-o-s-t-u" | |
+2 letters: ambitiously, sublimation, unambitious. | |
+3 letters: automobilist, sublimations. | |
+4 letters: ambitiousness, automobilists, overambitious, umbilications. | |
+5 letters: automobilities, disambiguation, misattribution, modulabilities, somnambulistic, subnormalities, superambitious. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 6D 62 69 74 69 6F 75 73 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- -- -... .. - .. --- ..- ... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01101101 01100010 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01110101 01110011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A m b i t i o u s |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 006D 0062 0069 0074 0069 006F 0075 0073 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)357968758675818785 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Historic | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Speeches 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Orthography | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
