ambitious

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

• (US) IPA^(key): /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪʃəs

ambitious (comparative ambitiouser or more ambitious, superlative ambitiousest or most ambitious)

1. Possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or other distinction.
   • 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Man with the Twisted Lip,"

     As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a suspicion as to my real occupation.

2. Strongly desirous—followed by "of" or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something.
3. Resulting from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition; showy; aspiring.

   an ambitious style

4. Hard to achieve.
   • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):

     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?

• Said of people, projects, plans, goals, etc.

• ambitiously
• ambitiousness
• overambitious

• ambition

• ambitious in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• ambitious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “ambitious” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “ambitious” in Microsoft's Encarta World English Dictionary, North American Edition (2007)
• "ambitious" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
• "ambitious" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• “ambitious” in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2007)