# courage

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/ · frequency rank #4,148

## Definitions
1. The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
2. The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.
3. The ability to maintain one's will or intent despite either the experience of fear, frailty, or frustration; or the occurrence of adversity, difficulty, defeat or reversal. Moral fortitude.

## Etymology
From Middle English corage, from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Displaced Middle English elne, ellen, from Old English ellen (“courage, valor”).

## Easily confused with
- **course** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/courage-vs-course)
- **curate** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/courage-vs-curate)
- **courant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/courage-vs-courant)
- **coverage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/courage-vs-coverage)
- **cottage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cottage-vs-courage)
- **comrade** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comrade-vs-courage)
- **collage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/collage-vs-courage)
- **coinage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coinage-vs-courage)

## Common misspellings (9)
`ccourage`, `coruage`, `couarge`, `couraeg`, `couragge`, `courgae`, `courrage`, `cuorage`, `ocurage`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/courage