cowardice
/ˈkaʊədɪs/US/ˈkaʊɚdɪs/
cowardice noun: lack of courage.
Noun
cowardice (countable and uncountable, plural cowardices)
- Lack of courage.
- The ſecond property of your excellent ſherris, is the vvarming of the blood, vvhich before (cold & ſetled) left the lyuer vvhite & pale, vvhich is the badge of puſilanimitie and covvardize: but the ſherris vvarmes it, and makes it courſe from the invvards to the partes extreames, […]c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600...
- Jem’s head at times was transparent: he had thought that up to make me understand he wasn’t afraid of Radleys in any shape or form, to contrast his own fearless heroism with my cowardice.1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC
cowardice meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
cowardice in Hindi
- the lack of courage
- कायरता kāyartā, बुज़दिली buzdilī
cowardice in Tamil
- கோழைத்தனம், துணிவின்மை, பேடித்தனம், பயங்கொள்ளித்தனம், அச்சம்
cowardice in Marathi
- भ्याडपणा, कायरता
cowardice in Urdu
- the lack of courage
- بُزْدِلی buzdilī, نامردی nāmardī
More languagesFewer languages
- cowardice in Bengali
- কাপুরুষতা, কাপুরুষোচিততা
- cowardice in Telugu
- పిరికితనము pirikitanamu
- cowardice in Malayalam
- ഭീരുത്വം bhīrutvaṁ
- cowardice in Kannada
- ಪೇಡಿತನ, ಹೇಡಿತನ, ಅಂಜುಕುಳಿತನ, ಹೆಣ್ಣಿಗತನ
- cowardice in Punjabi
- ਕਾਇਰਤਾ
- cowardice in Gujarati
- કાયરતા
- cowardice in Odia
- କାପୁରୁଷତା
- cowardice in Nepali
- कायरता
- cowardice in Tagalog
- kaduwagan, karuwagan
- cowardice in Arabic
- جَبَانَة jabāna
- cowardice in Indonesian
- kepengecutan
- cowardice in Persian
- بزدلی bozdeli
- cowardice in Thai
- ความขี้ขลาด kwaam-kîi-klàat
- cowardice in Vietnamese
- tính nhút nhát
Examples of cowardice in a sentence
- His desertion was condemned as an unsoldierly act of cowardice.
- Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth.
- A skulk of foxes, a cowardice of curs are tonight’s traffic whispering in the yards and lanes.
Synonyms of cowardice
- cowardliness
- cowardness
- cowardship
- fearfulness
- pusillanimity
- poltroonery
- chicken-heartedness
- hen-heartedness
Antonyms
Forms of cowardice
| plural | cowardices |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | cowardize |
| alternative form (obsolete) | cowardise |
Origin of cowardice
From Middle English cowardise, borrowed from Anglo-Norman cuardise (modern French couardise).
Questions about cowardice
- What does cowardice mean?
- Cowardice means lack of courage.
- What is cowardice in Hindi?
- Cowardice in Hindi is कायरता (kāyartā), बुज़दिली (buzdilī). See Cowardice meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cowardice?
- Cowardice is a noun.
- How do you pronounce cowardice?
- Cowardice is pronounced /ˈkaʊədɪs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of cowardice?
- The plural of cowardice is cowardices.
Words near cowardice in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cowardice (page history and authors); cowardice (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cowardice (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowardice (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowardice (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cowardice (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowardice (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowardice (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowardice (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cowardice.wav.
Cite this entry: “cowardice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cowardice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.