impudence

US/ˈɪmpjədəns/

nounC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,531 of 15,258leans spoken

Impudence is cheeky disrespect towards somebody. The sheer impudence, a piece of impudence, rebuked for impudence.

It is old-fashioned and half-admiring: calling something the sheer impudence of it concedes the nerve while condemning the manner. The Latin behind it means without shame, and impudent is the commoner form in modern writing.

Definitions of impudence

1nounimpudenceCheeky disrespect towards somebody.C2
“The teacher could not believe the boy's impudence when he told her to be quiet.”

impudence is a disrespect.

Where it comes from

Latin impudentia comes from impudens, shameless — in, not, plus pudens, feeling shame.

Latin
impudentia
Middle French
impudence
English, today
impudence

From Middle French impudence, from Latin impudentia.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

impudence in the wild

In Book VI, it is revealed that he had challenged the gods to a musical contest on the conch shell, and for his impudence was drowned by Triton.
Misenus
The king of the Cimbri was indignant at this impudence and had Scaurus executed.
Marcus Aurelius Scaurus
Variously, the stories suggest the person brave enough to sit in the chair at such a time may be punished for impudence or rewarded for courage.
The Devil's Chair (urban legend)
Henley, a man noted for his impudence and immorality but a good estate and a beau.
Anthony Henley (died 1748)
Then he began his speech of impudence: "Listen, thou knight, who art bound for the sword-bridge!
Four Arthurian Romances· Chrétien de Troyes

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

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