Ambitious

//æmˈbɪʃ.əs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having or showing ambition; wanting a lot of power, honor, respect, superiority, or other distinction.

    "an ambitious person"

  2. 2
    Very desirous

    "30 June 2019, Sam Wallace in The Telegraph, Manchester United must shape Aaron Wan-Bissaka into a £50m all-rounder - but there is no hiding place at Old Trafford Now he is joining a club ambitious to return to a model of dominating games and attacking opposition."

  3. 3
    Resulting from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition

    "an ambitious project"

  4. 4
    Hard to achieve.

    "A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […]. Stopping high-speed trains wastes energy and time, so why not simply slow them down enough for a moving platform to pull alongside?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    having a strong desire for success or achievement wordnet
  2. 2
    requiring full use of your abilities or resources wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
aspiringoverambitiouspushfuladventuresomeadventurousaggressive

Example

More examples

"The ambitious man became intoxicated with his own success."

Etymology

From Middle English ambitious, from Middle French ambitieus, from Latin ambitiosus, from ambitio; see ambition. Compare with French ambitieux.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.