Adventurous is an adjective that describes something or someone as being without fear and ready to accept hard challenges or adventures, usually with excitement. It can also be used to say something or someone is full of risk or danger.
The adverb form is adventurously and the noun form is adventurousness.
Adventuresome is also an adjective, but the definition is a little narrower. If something is adventuresome it searches out excitement or challenges, it takes risks. The noun form is adventuresomeness.
A related word is venturesome, which is a straight synonym for adventuresome.
Adventuresome could have originated with venturesome or adventurous. In any case, the most preferred word of the three is adventurous, and its prevalence surpasses the others by a wide margin.
Examples
For those with an adventurous spirit who fancy an activity-based holiday, off the beaten track, we’ve found a few interesting suggestions that are definitely not for the faint-hearted. [The Irish Independent]
Children often have strong emotional ties to grandparents, so some kids 10 and older might enjoy this romantic tale of British pensioners living out their third acts more cheaply and adventurously in modern India. [The Washington Post]
The softly gliding opener, Residing, is so smooth as to misrepresent the adventurousness of the rest of the set, but then there’s Saunders’ hauntingly languid phrasing on You Caught Me, the churning groove of the childlike drifter Moon, the rap-like Reflections and the intimate, unbugged ballad You With Me; all advance the evidence that she keeps digging deeper and more intelligently into an idiom that’s often only visited on the surface. [The Guardian]
Couples with an adventuresome bent can hike through the Na Pali Coast or kayak down the Wailua River, among other activities. [Arab News]
A venturesome drummer and composer, Mr. Eisenstadt likes to walk the line between free-form exploration and meticulous composition, and this texture-rich new ensemble — with the multireedist Marty Ehrlich, the bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck and the bassist Eivind Opsvik — should suit that purpose handily. [The New York Times]