These words share the connotation of self-assertive, confident and energetic dispositions, with or without a disregard for the rights of others. Bold shares with aggressive the implication of a vigorous attack on a problem or prosecution of one’s aims, and in this sense carries no derogatory connotation. An aggressive or bold entrepreneur will seek success farther afield and will risk more in this search than will his more timid competitor. Bold does, however, have a wider ranges of application than aggressive . In some contexts bold suggests impudence or cheekiness, although this use is certainly less common now than it once was: The bold fellow simply put out his hand and asked for more money. In other contexts it suggests commendable enterprise: a bold new venture in space science. Aggressive typically describes one who has a more lively sense of his own destiny than of other people’s feelings.

Aggressive shares with forward and pushing a derogatory connotation of callousness in seeking one’s ends. A forward or pushing social climber may resort to gossip, slander and back-biting. Pushing may also be used in the less derogatory sense of aggressive to mean enterprising and energetic.