A person who enjoys taking risks.

synonym: venturer.

Roget 863: rashness etc. adj.; temerity, want of caution, imprudence, indiscretion; overconfidence, presumption, audacity.    precipitancy, precipitation; impetuosity; levity; foolhardihood^†, foolhardiness; heedlessness, thoughtlessness etc. (inattention) 458; carelessness etc. (neglect) 460; desperation; Quixotism, knight-errantry; fire eating.    gaming, gambling; blind bargain, leap in the dark, leap of faith, fool's paradise; too many eggs in one basket.    desperado, rashling^†, madcap, daredevil, Hotspur, fire eater, bully, bravo, Hector, scapegrace, enfant perdu [Fr.]; Don Quixote, knight-errant, Icarus; adventurer; gambler, gamester; dynamitard^†; boomer [U.S.].    ... show more

Roget 876: commonalty, democracy; obscurity; low condition, low life, low society, low company; bourgeoisie; mass of the people, mass of society; Brown Jones and Robinson; lower classes, humbler classes, humbler orders; vulgar herd, common herd; rank and file, hoc genus omne [Lat.]; the many, the general, the crowd, the people, the populace, the multitude, the million, the masses, the mobility, the peasantry; king Mob; proletariat; fruges consumere nati [Lat.], demos, hoi polloi [Gr.], great unwashed; man in the street.    mob; rabble, rabble rout; chaff, rout, horde, canaille; scum of the people, residuum of the people, dregs of the people, dregs of society; swinish multitude, foex populi^†; trash; profanum vulgus [Lat.], ignobile vulgus [Lat.]; vermin, riffraff, ragtag and bobtail; small fry.    commoner, one of the people, democrat, plebeian, republican, proletary^†, proletaire^†, roturier^†, Mr.    Snooks, bourgeois, epicier [Fr.], Philistine, cockney; grisette^†, demimonde.    peasant, countryman, boor, carle^†, churl; villain, villein; terrae filius [Lat.], son of the land; serf, kern^†, tyke, tike, chuff^†, ryot^†, fellah; longshoreman; swain, clown, hind; clod, clodhopper; hobnail, yokel, bog-trotter, bumpkin; plowman, plowboy^†; rustic, hayseed [Slang], lunkhead [U.S.], chaw-bacon [Slang], tiller of the soil; hewers of wood and drawers of water, groundling^†; gaffer, loon, put, cub, Tony Lumpkin^†, looby^†, rube [U.S.], lout, underling; gamin; rough; pot-wallopper^†, slubberdegullion^†; vulgar fellow, low fellow; cad, curmudgeon.    upstart, parvenu, skipjack^†; nobody, nobody one knows; hesterni quirites [Lat.], pessoribus orti [Lat.]; bourgeois gentilhomme [Fr.], novus homo [Lat.], snob, gent, mushroom, no one knows who, adventurer; man of straw.    beggar, gaberlunzie^†, muckworm^†, mudlark^†, sans culotte, raff^†, tatterdemalion, caitiff, ragamuffin, Pariah, outcast of society, tramp, vagabond, bezonian^†, panhandler [Slang], sundowner^†, chiffonnier, Cinderella, cinderwench^†, scrub, jade; gossoon^†.    Goth, Vandal, Hottentot, Zulu, savage, barbarian, Yahoo; unlicked cub^†, rough diamond^†.    barbarousness, barbarism; boeotia.    ... show more

Roget 621: chance etc. 156; lot, fate etc. (necessity) 601; luck; good luck etc. (good) 618; mascot.    speculation, venture, stake, game of chance; mere shot, random shot; blind bargain, leap in the dark; pig in a poke etc. (uncertainty) 475; fluke, potluck; faro bank; flyer [Slang]; limit.    uncertainty; uncertainty principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.    drawing lots; sortilegy^†, sortition^†; sortes^†, sortes Virgilianae^†; rouge et noir [Fr.], hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo [U.S.], craps, faro, roulette, pitch and toss, chuck, farthing, cup tossing, heads or tails cross and pile, poker-dice; wager; bet, betting; gambling; the turf.    gaming house, gambling house, betting house; bucket shop; gambling joint; totalizator, totalizer; hell; betting ring; dice, dice box.    [person who takes chances] gambler, gamester; man of the turf; adventurer; dicer^†.    ... show more

Roget 463: experiment; essay etc. (attempt) 675; analysis etc. (investigation) 461; screen; trial, tentative method, t=atonnement.    verification, probation, experimentum crucis [Lat.], proof, (demonstration) 478; criterion, diagnostic, test, probe, crucial test, acid test, litmus test.    crucible, reagent, check, touchstone, pix^†; assay, ordeal; ring; litmus paper, curcuma paper^†, turmeric paper; test tube; analytical instruments etc. 633.    empiricism, rule of thumb.    feeler; trial balloon, pilot balloon, messenger balloon; pilot engine; scout; straw to show the wind.    speculation, random shot, leap in the dark.    analyzer, analyst, assayist^†; adventurer; experimenter, experimentist^†, experimentalist; scientist, engineer, technician.    subject, experimentee^†, guinea pig, experimental animal.    [experimental method] protocol, experimental method, blind experiment, double-blind experiment, controlled experiment.    poll, survey, opinion poll.    epidemiological survey [Med.], retrospective analysis, retrospective survey, prospective survey, prospective analysis; statistical analysis.    literature search, library research.    tryout, audition.    [results of experiment] discovery etc. 480; measurement etc. 466; evidence etc. 467.    [reasoning about an experiment] deduction, induction, abduction.    ... show more

Roget 548: deceiver etc. (deceive) etc. 545; dissembler, hypocrite; sophist, Pharisee, Jesuit, Mawworm^†, Pecksniff, Joseph Surface, Tartufe^†, Janus; serpent, snake in the grass, cockatrice, Judas, wolf in sheep's clothing; jilt; shuffler^†, stool pigeon.    liar etc. (lie) etc. 544; story-teller, perjurer, false witness, menteur a triple etage [Fr.], Scapin^†; bunko steerer [U.S.], carpetbagger [U.S.], capper [U.S.], faker, fraud, four flusher [Slang], horse coper^†, ringer [Slang], spieler^†, straw bidder [U.S.].    imposter, pretender, soi-disant [Fr.], humbug; adventurer; Cagliostro, Fernam Mendez Pinto; ass in lion's skin etc. (bungler) 701; actor etc. (stage player) 599.    quack, charlatan, mountebank, saltimbanco^†, saltimbanque^†, empiric, quacksalver, medicaster^†, Rosicrucian, gypsy; man of straw.    conjuror, juggler, trickster, prestidigitator, jockey; crimp, decoy, decoy duck; rogue, knave, cheat; swindler etc. (thief) 792; jobber.    ... show more

Dutch: avonturier, fortuinzoeker, gelukzoeker, goudzoeker, vrijbuiter
Polish: ryzykant

Someone who travels into little known regions (especially for some scientific purpose).

synonym: explorer.

Roget 268: traveler, wayfarer, voyager, itinerant, passenger, commuter.    tourist, excursionist, explorer, adventurer, mountaineer, hiker, backpacker, Alpine Club; peregrinator^†, wanderer, rover, straggler, rambler; bird of passage; gadabout, gadling^†; vagrant, scatterling^†, landloper^†, waifs and estrays^†, wastrel, foundling; loafer; tramp, tramper; vagabond, nomad, Bohemian, gypsy, Arab^†, Wandering Jew, Hadji, pilgrim, palmer; peripatetic; somnambulist, emigrant, fugitive, refugee; beach comber, booly^†; globegirdler^†, globetrotter; vagrant, hobo [U.S.], night walker, sleep walker; noctambulist, runabout, straphanger, swagman, swagsman [Austral.]; trecker^†, trekker, zingano^†, zingaro^†.    runner, courier; Mercury, Iris, Ariel^†, comet.    pedestrian, walker, foot passenger; cyclist; wheelman.    rider, horseman, equestrian, cavalier, jockey, roughrider, trainer, breaker.    driver, coachman, whip, Jehu, charioteer, postilion, postboy^†, carter, wagoner, drayman^†; cabman, cabdriver; voiturier^†, vetturino^†, condottiere^†; engine driver; stoker, fireman, guard; chauffeur, conductor, engineer, gharry-wallah^†, gari-wala^†, hackman, syce^†, truckman^†.    ... show more

Dutch: ontdekker, avonturier, fortuinzoeker, gelukzoeker, goudzoeker, ontdekkingsreiziger