Membean is an incredibly effective way to learn words and permanently remember them.
Learn more on how we help for Test Prep, Personal Learning, or get it for your School.

  • Noun

insouciance

in-SOO-see-uhns

Context
Help

At first glance, every action of young Hollywood stars is marked by a carefree attitude or insouciance. Glancing through the current tabloids, one might be overwhelmed by the beautiful, young, and wealthy people who remain insouciant or unconcerned about the cares of the population at large. Not all celebrities have such a cheerful insouciance or lack of sensitivity, however, as some stars use their fame to do good in the world.

Quiz: How might you describe someone whose personality is characterized by insouciance?

  • Accusatory of everyone around them of trying to cause them harm.
  • Indifferent and unbothered even in dangerous or risky situations.
  • Completely self-absorbed with their own problems and worries.

Memory Hook
Help

Foot in Sushi I can't believe that Vance showed no concern at all when he stuck his foot in the sushi on the sushi bar--what insouciance by Vance!

Examples
Help

  • Something odd has happened to the debate about the housing market and the economy. As the chances of an imminent fall in house prices have risen, there is increasing insouciance about the likely impact on the economy. — The Economist
  • Part Jasper Johns painting, part hipster insouciance, the classic shoes have now been faded, beaten and scuffed as if they've been marching for causes since before you were born. — The Washington Post
  • "Records don't drive me," Griffey says. "I'm going to do whatever I can to help the team. Plain and simple. It doesn't matter what numbers you put up, the most important ones are in the won-lost column." Such a lack of self-indulgence is no surprise, coming from someone who still plays with the insouciance of a child in a pickup game. — Sports Illustrated
  • As his international career began to take off in the '60s, and to soar in the '70s, there were questions about Pavarotti's discipline and dynamism. . . . Whatever insouciance Pavarotti may have shown behind the scenes, his stage performances dazzled opera fans from La Scala to Covent Garden to New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where in 1972 he received a whopping 17 curtain calls after one performance. — USA Today

Word Ingredients
Help

in- not
souc troubled, worried, anxious
-ance state or condition

If one exhibits insouciance about a worrisome situation, one has the “state or condition of not being troubled, worried, or anxious” about it when one should be.

Word Theater
Help

Bobby McFerrin Insouciance is a part of those people's lives who don't worry about anything at all!
61

Word Constellation
Help

Insouciance

Word Variants
Help

insouciant adj not concerned or caring