What's the difference between courageous and heroic?

Courageous


Definition:

  • (a.) Possessing, or characterized by, courage; brave; bold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I know I have the courage to deal with all the sniping but you worry about the effects on your family."
  • (2) It also devalues the courage of real whistleblowers who have used proper channels to hold our government accountable.” McCain added: “It is a sad, yet perhaps fitting commentary on President Obama’s failed national security policies that he would commute the sentence of an individual that endangered the lives of American troops, diplomats, and intelligence sources by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, a virulently anti-American organisation that was a tool of Russia’s recent interference in our elections.” WikiLeaks last year published emails hacked from the accounts of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s election campaign.
  • (3) He made me laugh and cry, and his courage in writing about what he was going through was sometimes quite overwhelming.
  • (4) Gin was popularised in the UK via British troops who were given the spirit as “Dutch courage” during the 30 years’ war.
  • (5) This was a courageous move in a society where women were confined to purdah.
  • (6) The woman said it took her until the mid-1990s to pluck up the courage to report the abuse to Jersey's children's services department – and that her allegations were not taken seriously enough.
  • (7) My hope is that those who are at the Games take these words and let them echo, with grace, courage and dignity, in whatever way they choose to, because it will make a difference to those participating, and to those watching.
  • (8) After Japanese troops invaded the Chinese city of Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1937, slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians, Hirohito said he was "deeply satisfied" by the troops' courage in quickly seizing the city.
  • (9) And with that courage, we can stand together for good jobs and just wages.
  • (10) Honest journalism and the courageous whistleblowers who denounce human rights violations or attempts against state sovereignty deserve to be protected.
  • (11) These inspiring and courageous women are up against a highly resourced state that looks after its own.
  • (12) Congratulating Mr Rabin and Mr Arafat on having the courage to change, a Clintonite speciality, he went on: 'Above all, let us dedicate ourselves to your region's next generation.
  • (13) Alicia deserves praise for courageously standing up to Trump’s attacks.
  • (14) In the Russian gallery, for example, the courageous Vadim Zakharov presents a pointed version of the Danaë myth in which an insouciant dictator (of whom it is hard not to think: Putin) sits on a high beam on a saddle, shelling nuts all day while gold coins rain down from a vast shower-head only to be hoisted in buckets by faceless thuggish men in suits.
  • (15) They’re losing fear and they’re gaining courage, especially from the military positions he’s taken.
  • (16) They had announced Thursday that "as a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased."
  • (17) Essential traits of this personality are an independent mind capable of liberating itself from dogmatic tenets universally accepted by the scientific community; the capacity and courage to look at things from a new angle; powers of combination, intuition and imagination; feu sacré and perseverance--in short, intellectual as well as moral qualities.
  • (18) Cubism as practised by Picasso and Braque they thought courageous, up to a point, but misguided.
  • (19) The doubts over what some see as Miliband's lack of presentational skills and "wonkiness" have, in part, been stilled by his flashes of courage and intuitive accord with the public mood – on Libor, on predatory capitalism, on Murdoch.
  • (20) It cannot be right that anyone who has found the courage to escape their abusive or violent partner should be subjected to the stress and torment of being confronted and interrogated by them in any court.” Research by charity Women’s Aid suggests a quarter of women in family court proceedings have been cross-examined by an abusive former partner.

Heroic


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to, or like, a hero; of the nature of heroes; distinguished by the existence of heroes; as, the heroic age; an heroic people; heroic valor.
  • (a.) Worthy of a hero; bold; daring; brave; illustrious; as, heroic action; heroic enterprises.
  • (a.) Larger than life size, but smaller than colossal; -- said of the representation of a human figure.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "The performance of Italy and France kind of puts Ireland's heroic non-qualification in context," suggests Sean DeLoughry, giving everyone pause for thought.
  • (2) But 30 minutes before takeoff on our private jet – like a top-end Lexus limo with wings – actress Rosamund Pike has heroically stepped in for the year's hot meal ticket: an El Bulli supper, pitch perfect for a selection of rare champagne, devised by Adrià with Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon's effervescent chef de cave.
  • (3) Sudden cardiac death is frequently an unexpected first clinical manifestation of coronary artery disease and, despite heroic efforts, treatment of sudden death victims is frequently unsuccessful.
  • (4) The popular appeal of the "School Shield" program hinges on believing in heroics; good public policy depends on preventing the need for them.
  • (5) As part of Return of Forces to Germany 1990, a number of Second Armored Division soldiers participated in the heroic rescue of German and American civilians injured in a 32-vehicle crash on an autobahn in West Germany.
  • (6) The first unstable six years of his presidency may not have provided a heroic record, but his second term proved to be important in the restoration of democracy to his country.
  • (7) As a result of the blast, there were martyrs and wounded among our heroic armed comrades,” the military said.
  • (8) At a press conference held outside the temple on Sunday, Oak Creek police chief John Edwards said the "heroic actions" of the two officers "stopped this from being worse than it could have been", noting that many people had gathered for worship at the time of the attack.
  • (9) Such approaches, while often heroic and unusually creative in character, have limited the exportability of hardware or software products to the larger biomedical community.
  • (10) Consequently, the assumption or normative postulate of a 'rational' (scientific) risk assessment and risk management appears to be utterly heroic and, in the end, misleading.
  • (11) Point one read: “Create the rebirth of heroical behavioural ideals of an artist-intellectual… the artist as romantic hero, who prevails over evil.
  • (12) It is part horror-show, part cautionary tale, and partly heroic example.
  • (13) Manufacturing is weak and weakening ; the employment gap between the rich and the poor is the widest on record ; the economic recovery is actually more like an extended stagnation with 12 million people unemployed; the housing "recovery" will be stalled as long as incomes are low and house prices are high ; and quantitative easing as a stimulus, while a heroic independent effort by the Federal Reserve, is past its due date and is no longer improving the country's fortunes beyond the stock market .
  • (14) And I think Chinese media are going to play it out in a very heroic way."
  • (15) Yet there was heroic virtue in the man, in the way he answered the demands of his day job as a civil servant and then devoted what ought to have been free time for his own work to responding to the work of others.
  • (16) The diplomats told Washington that certain themes in American movies seemed to appeal to the Saudi audience: heroic honesty in the face of corruption (George Clooney in Michael Clayton), supportive behaviour in relationships (an unspecified drama that was repeated during an Eid holiday featuring an American husband dealing with a drunk wife who smashed cars and crockery when she wasn't assaulting him and their child), and respect for the law over self-interest (Al Pacino and Robin Williams in Insomnia).
  • (17) And then there's her heroically blunt songs, such as You're Gonna Die Soon , performed to a group of octogenarians.
  • (18) Comrades from the heroic anti-colonial days retired, drifted away or were pushed out – in the case of President Devan Nair in 1985, after a humiliating allegation of alcoholism that he contested.
  • (19) On Tuesday Khamenei used the expression "heroic leniency", which is being interpreted as a euphemism for a softer stance on foreign policy.
  • (20) "This heroic gesture by Hazara families [in Quetta] has inspired ordinary citizens and Pakistan's scared civil society to come out and be counted and basically put an end to terrorism.