precipice
Americannoun
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a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.
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a situation of great peril.
on the precipice of war.
noun
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the steep sheer face of a cliff or crag
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the cliff or crag itself
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a precarious situation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of precipice
1590–1600; < Middle French < Latin praecipitium steep place, equivalent to praecipit- (stem of praeceps ) steep, headlong ( prae- pre- + -cipit-, combining form of caput head; see caput) + -ium -ium
Explanation
Cartoon characters often end up on a precipice, the edge of a steep cliff, where their chubby toes curl and cling as they totter and eventually fall, making a hole in the ground below and getting up again. Most real people avoid precipices. Unless you're a skilled climber or mountain-sport enthusiast, a precipice is a scary thing. Some imagine falling off and making the sharp drop, while others get dizzy just thinking about looking down. This makes sense, considering that the 17th-century English word precipice comes, through French, from Latin words meaning "headlong" and "abrupt descent." In modern use, precipice also describes how it feels to fall, or fail, in areas of life that don't involve mountains, such as being "on the precipice of losing everything."
Vocabulary lists containing precipice
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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"The Ravine," Vocabulary from the short story
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A Spelling Bee for Fun
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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:
When England were behind to DR Congo in the last 32, it was Kane's late double that pulled them away from the precipice.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Maxine glides along, bathed in gratitude, making assured artistic decisions and certain that she is on the precipice of something that will change her life forever.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
Cuba 10 years ago appeared on the precipice of rejoining the wider world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
A few houses hovered perilously close—5 feet or so—from the precipice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
The birth of modern science—the offspring of theory and observation— teetered on the precipice of their mutual mistrust.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Most of the sheep huddle in sleep, while the more adventurous ones and, predictably, the goats perch on rocky precipices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
In addition to groundwater depletion, rising insurance costs and extreme heat, the U.N. report highlights melting glaciers, ecosystem collapse and space debris as systems nearing precipices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
Landslides in Himachal Pradesh killed more than 50 people this month, with houses flattened and buses and cars hanging on the edge of precipices after roads gave way.
From Reuters ● Aug. 24, 2023
Too much focus on targets like 1.5°C can backfire if they are seen as precipices beyond which there is no redemption, says Tebaldi: “People feel this sense of disempowerment.”
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 9, 2021
At their feet lay a straggle of low buildings, a criss-cross of walls; and on three sides the precipices fell sheer into the plain.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
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.
