AMBITIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ambitious mean? 

• AMBITIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective AMBITIOUS has 2 senses:

1. having a strong desire for success or achievement

2. requiring full use of your abilities or resources

  Familiarity information: AMBITIOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AMBITIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having a strong desire for success or achievement

Similar:

pushful; pushy (marked by aggressive ambition and energy and initiative)

aspirant; aspiring; wishful (desiring or striving for recognition or advancement)

compulsive; determined; driven (strongly motivated to succeed)

manque; would-be (unfulfilled or frustrated in realizing an ambition)

overambitious (excessively ambitious)

Also:

enterprising (marked by imagination, initiative, and readiness to undertake new projects)

Attribute:

ambition; ambitiousness (a strong drive for success)

Antonym:

unambitious (having little desire for success or achievement)

Derivation:

ambition; ambitiousness (a strong drive for success)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Requiring full use of your abilities or resources

Synonyms:

ambitious; challenging

Context example:

performed the most challenging task without a mistake

Similar:

difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)

Derivation:

ambition (a cherished desire)

 Context examples 

The three-year-old grew too ambitious in his fierceness.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“It is humble,” said Mr. Micawber, “—to quote a favourite expression of my friend Heep; but it may prove the stepping-stone to more ambitious domiciliary accommodation.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

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.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ambitious girls have a hard time, Laurie, and often have to see youth, health, and precious opportunities go by, just for want of a little help at the right minute.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She would try to be more ambitious than her heart would allow.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

When he was only seventeen, he was earning excellent wages at setting type, but he was ambitious.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Really ambitious technological changes and improvements in management are essential to avoid crossing planetary boundaries for land use, water use and fertilizer application.

(Model shows pathway to feeding the world, SciDev.Net)

As conventional semiconductor technologies approach their physical limitations, researchers need to explore new technologies to realise the most ambitious visions of a future networked global society.

(Graphene may exceed bandwidth demands of future telecommunications, University of Cambridge)

“Nay, there is more to be done,” cried the prince, carried away by the ambitious dream.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mars is an ambitious planet that helps you compete brilliantly.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)