peril
Americannoun
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perils
plural
-
exposure to injury, loss, or destruction; grave risk; jeopardy; danger.
They faced the peril of falling rocks.
-
something that causes or may cause injury, loss, or destruction.
verb (used with object)
noun
Synonym Usage
See danger.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of peril
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin perīculum “danger, test, trial,” from perī-, verb base meaning “try” (also found in the compound experīrī “to try, test”; see experience) + -culum -cle 2
Explanation
If you realize mid-climb that your rock climbing rope is frayed, you might be in peril. The word peril means imminent danger to life and limb. Peril comes from the Latin peric(u)lum, meaning danger. Today it's often used in tandem with the word mortal, which relates to death. For example, you're in mortal peril when you're flying down a cliff-side trail on your mountain bike and you hit loose gravel. Peril can also describe dangers of a less physical sort, though it's less common. If your employer sinks your 401K into what turns out to be a Ponzi scheme, he's put your retirement in peril.
Vocabulary lists containing peril
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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ACT Vocabulary List
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Swiss Re Institute warned Tuesday that wildfire risk is the fastest-growing weather peril globally.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
"Wildfire risk has so far accounted for only a relatively small share of insured losses in Europe. Yet it is the fastest-growing weather peril globally," the company said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
It’s a system that has worked for decades, but it may be in peril, as the 12-bed private nonprofit hospital’s leaders are concerned it won’t be able to survive its current financial challenges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
“Legally Blonde” sets up Elle to be underestimated by everybody, including the audience, although the movie drops small hints from the very start that perhaps everyone misjudges her at their peril.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
I write to you, encompassed by peril and ignorant whether I am ever doomed to see again dear England and the dearer friends that inhabit it.
From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
Even so, as he described to me in his office, perils remain, especially for Muslim candidates.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
The perils of leaving a five-star review on a wing and a prayer.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
“ProPublica’s reporting shows the perils of not having this law,” Rubin said.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026
But by steering the live-action Prime Video adaptation directly into the anxieties of the zeitgeist, showrunner Eric Kripke has transformed the superhero satire into a terrifying tale about the perils of authoritarianism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
He knew that all the hazards and perils were now drawing together to a point: the next day would be a day of doom, the day of final effort or disaster, the last gasp.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
We all realize that we live in periled times, and our nation must be prepared to defend itself at a moment's notice.
From Time Magazine Archive
Whether Franklin Roosevelt consciously led the U.S. to war, or hoped to keep the U.S. out by a daring support of its periled friends, will be historians' debating ground for years to come.
From Time Magazine Archive
One night last week an old dog periled the Earl's new job.
From Time Magazine Archive
They periled their lives in behalf of liberty, when "'Twas treason to love her and death to defend."
From Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1 by George S. Boutwell
In so doing he periled his life, as he had placed his name upon the Declaration of Independence—then sneeringly called the death warrant of the signers by the Tories and their coadjutors—the British.
From Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll Judson
Justice Department attorneys respond that fears about Snepp's being a loose cannon periling the First Amendment rights of all sorts of people are greatly exaggerated.
From Time Magazine Archive
Too comfortable in his feelings to keep still, as indeed was indispensable to the most steady among us, he kept constantly lurching about, and periling us with a capsizing repeatedly.
From Forest Life and Forest Trees: comprising winter camp-life among the loggers, and wild-wood adventure. with Descriptions of lumbering operations on the various rivers of Maine and New Brunswick by John S. Springer
The case of the colored man Davis, who made such a bold stroke to regain his liberty, by periling his life on board the steamer Keystone State, has excited very general attention.
You may answer me, if you please, with a similar analogy, "Who would not prefer the amputation of an arm to the periling of life by doubt and procrastination!"
From The Sorrows of Young Werther by R. Dillon Boylan
It was impossible to touch the mud of Paris without periling the subsistence of eighteen hundred persons.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 by Various
But a monarch of the forest flung his head in furious rage, Naught he cared for sovereign sahib, sought some foe now to engage; While the crowd in panic parted, perilled pundits sought a sage.
From Time Magazine Archive
Beyond this, and with reference to any possibility of saving the perilled man, he was probably quite as much in the dark as any of the others.
From The Coward A Novel of Society and the Field in 1863 by Henry Morford
My emotions, finally, which perilled and dominated my life, slip now into a subordinate position, and while thereby as actively employed as before, are held under discipline.
From The Abiding Presence of the Holy Ghost in the Soul by Bede Jarrett
Yesterday you perilled that venerable head to save me from the angry mob,--now let me shield you from the menacing phantoms of night and loneliness.
From Only a Girl: or, A Physician for the Soul. by Wilhelmine von Hillern
Wasn't it for you that I did all this? and—God, forgive me!—maybe it 's my soul that I 've perilled to leave you a rich man.
From Tom Burke Of "Ours", Volume I by Charles James Lever
Is she a prisoner like myself? or is she disguised, and perilling her life to save mine? or can she be—Patience!
From The Rifle Rangers by Mayne Reid
I thought I was perilling my head by coming here, and you tell me I have saved it.
From Vera or, The Nihilists by Oscar Wilde
Humbly and earnestly I sought to the God of wisdom and light to guide me; and I never felt for a moment that I was perilling my salvation.
From Autobiography and Letters of Orville Dewey, D.D. Edited by his Daughter by Mary Elizabeth Dewey
The editor could dedicate his paper to the service of Janus, the two-faced deity, and thus pursue his business without perilling his reputation for religious consistency.
From Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 10, June 4, 1870 by Various
But what was to be done with my dear wounded friend, who had saved my life by perilling his own?
From Working in the Shade Lowly Sowing brings Glorious Reaping by Theodore P. Wilson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
