Library / English Dictionary

ADVENTURER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who enjoys taking risks

Synonyms:

adventurer; venturer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("adventurer" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "adventurer"):

argonaut (someone engaged in a dangerous but potentially rewarding adventure)

adventuress (a woman adventurer)

cowboy (someone who is reckless or irresponsible (especially in driving vehicles))

daredevil; harum-scarum; hothead; lunatic; madcap; swashbuckler (a reckless impetuous irresponsible person)

gambler; risk taker (someone who risks loss or injury in the hope of gain or excitement)

hotspur (a rash or impetuous person)

mercenary; soldier of fortune (a person hired to fight for another country than their own)

mountain climber; mountaineer (someone who climbs mountains)

plunger; speculator (someone who risks losses for the possibility of considerable gains)

Instance hyponyms:

Casanova; Casanova de Seingalt; Giovanni Jacopo Casanova; Giovanni Jacopo Casanova de Seingalt (an Italian adventurer who wrote vivid accounts of his sexual encounters (1725-1798))

Derivation:

adventure (a wild and exciting undertaking (not necessarily lawful))

adventure (take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome)

adventure (put at risk)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who travels into little known regions (especially for some scientific purpose)

Synonyms:

adventurer; explorer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("adventurer" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "adventurer"):

potholer; spelaeologist; speleologist; spelunker (a person who explores caves)

navigator (in earlier times, a person who explored by ship)

diver; frogman; underwater diver (someone who works underwater)

conquistador (an adventurer (especially one who led the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century))

Instance hyponyms:

David Livingstone; Livingstone (Scottish missionary and explorer who discovered the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls (1813-1873))

Mackenzie; Sir Alexander Mackenzie (Canadian explorer (born in England) who explored the Mackenzie River and who was first to cross North America by land north of Mexico (1764-1820))

Fridtjof Nansen; Nansen (Norwegian explorer of the Arctic and director of the League of Nations relief program for refugees of World War I (1861-1930))

Mungo Park; Park (Scottish explorer in Africa (1771-1806))

Peary; Robert E. Peary; Robert Edwin Peary; Robert Peary (United States Arctic explorer and United States naval officer who has been regarded as the first man to reach the North Pole (1856-1920))

Kund Johan Victor Rasmussen; Rasmussen (Danish ethnologist and Arctic explorer; led expeditions into the Arctic to find support for his theory that Eskimos and North American Indians originally migrated from Asia (1879-1933))

James Clark Ross; Ross; Sir James Clark Ross (British explorer of the Arctic and Antarctic; located the north magnetic pole in 1831; discovered the Ross Sea in Antarctica; nephew of Sir John Ross (1800-1862))

John Ross; Ross; Sir John Ross (Scottish explorer who led Arctic expeditions that yielded geographic discoveries while searching for the Northwest Passage (1777-1856))

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft; Schoolcraft (United States geologist and ethnologist and explorer who discovered the source of the Mississippi River (1793-1864))

Robert Falcon Scott; Robert Scott; Scott (English explorer who reached the South Pole just a month after Amundsen; he and his party died on the return journey (1868-1912))

Captain John Smith; John Smith; Smith (English explorer who helped found the colony at Jamestown, Virginia; was said to have been saved by Pocahontas (1580-1631))

John Hanning Speke; John Speke; Speke (English explorer who with Sir Richard Burton was the first European to explore Lake Tanganyika; he also discovered Lake Victoria and named it (1827-1864))

Henry M. Stanley; John Rowlands; Sir Henry Morton Stanley; Stanley (Welsh journalist and explorer who led an expedition to Africa in search of David Livingstone and found him in Tanzania in 1871; he and Livingstone together tried to find the source of the Nile River (1841-1904))

Otto Neumann Sverdrup; Sverdrup (Norwegian explorer who led expeditions into the Arctic (1855-1930))

Sebastian Vizcaino; Vizcaino (Spanish explorer who was the first European to explore the California coast (1550-1615))

Charles Wilkes; Wilkes (United States explorer of Antarctica (1798-1877))

George Hubert Wilkins; Wilkins (Australian who was the first to explore the Arctic by airplane (1888-1958))

Amundsen; Roald Amundsen (Norwegian explorer who was the first to traverse the Northwest Passage and in 1911 the first to reach the South Pole (1872-1928))

Bartlett; Captain Bob; Robert Abram Bartlett; Robert Bartlett (United States explorer who accompanied Peary's expedition to the North Pole and who led many other Arctic trips (1875-1946))

Bougainville; Louis Antoine de Bougainville (French explorer who circumnavigated the globe accompanied by scientists (1729-1811))

Burton; Richard Burton; Sir Richard Burton; Sir Richard Francis Burton (English explorer who with John Speke was the first European to explore Lake Tanganyika (1821-1890))

Admiral Byrd; Byrd; Richard E. Byrd; Richard Evelyn Byrd (explorer and United States naval officer; led expeditions to explore Antarctica (1888-1957))

Cabot; Sebastian Cabot (son of John Cabot who was born in Italy and who led an English expedition in search of the Northwest Passage and a Spanish expedition that explored the La Plata region of Brazil; in 1544 he published a map of the world (1476-1557))

Champlain; Samuel de Champlain (French explorer in Nova Scotia who established a settlement on the site of modern Quebec (1567-1635))

Clark; William Clark (United States explorer who (with Meriwether Lewis) led an expedition from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River; Clark was responsible for making maps of the area (1770-1838))

Cordoba; Cordova; Francisco Fernandez Cordoba; Francisco Fernandez de Cordova (Spanish explorer who discovered Yucatan (1475-1526))

Cousteau; Jacques Costeau; Jacques Yves Costeau (French underwater explorer (born in 1910))

Flinders; Matthew Flinders; Sir Matthew Flinders (British explorer who mapped the Australian coast (1774-1814))

Fremont; John C. Fremont; John Charles Fremont (United States explorer who mapped much of the American west and Northwest (1813-1890))

Frobisher; Sir Martin Frobisher (English explorer who led an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage to the orient; served under Drake and helped defeat the Spanish Armada (1535-1594))

Charles Francis Hall; Hall (United States explorer who led three expeditions to the Arctic (1821-1871))

Joliet; Jolliet; Louis Joliet; Louis Jolliet (French explorer (with Jacques Marquette) of the upper Mississippi River valley (1645-1700))

LaSalle; Rene-Robert Cavelier; Sieur de LaSalle (French explorer who claimed Louisiana for France (1643-1687))

Lewis; Meriwether Lewis (United States explorer and soldier who lead led an expedition from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River (1774-1809))

Derivation:

adventure (a wild and exciting undertaking (not necessarily lawful))

adventure (take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The Aurora was the first steamboat of the year for the Outside, and her decks were jammed with prosperous adventurers and broken gold seekers, all equally as mad to get to the Outside as they had been originally to get to the Inside.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Whilst Chandos had been conversing with the two knights a continuous stream of suitors had been ushered in, adventurers seeking to sell their swords and merchants clamoring over some grievance, a ship detained for the carriage of troops, or a tun of sweet wine which had the bottom knocked out by a troop of thirsty archers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We have no foolish ideas about wealth, but comfort is another matter, and our daughter should at least marry a man who can give her that—and not a penniless adventurer, a sailor, a cowboy, a smuggler, and Heaven knows what else, who, in addition to everything, is hare-brained and irresponsible.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Yet why should they build and strive, when the first adventurer who passed would set torch to their thatch, and when their own feudal lord would wring from them with blows and curses the last fruits of their toil?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)