danger

[deyn-jer]

noun

1. liability or exposure to harm or injury; risk; peril.

2. an instance or cause of peril; menace.

3. Obsolete.,  power; jurisdiction; domain.

danger

/ ˈdeɪndʒə /

noun

1. the state of being vulnerable to injury, loss, or evil; risk

2. a person or thing that may cause injury, pain, etc

3. obsolete,  power

4. liable to

5. critically ill in hospital

Other Word Forms

• dangerless adjective
• superdanger noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of danger¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English da(u)nger, from Anglo-French, Old French dangier, alteration of dongier (by influence of dam damage ), from Vulgar Latin domniārium (unrecorded), equivalent to Latin domini(um) dominion + -ārium (neuter of -ārius -ary )

Word History and Origins

Origin of danger¹

C13: daunger power, hence power to inflict injury, from Old French dongier (from Latin dominium ownership) blended with Old French dam injury, from Latin damnum

Synonym Study

Danger, hazard, peril, jeopardy imply harm that one may encounter. Danger is the general word for liability to all kinds of injury or evil consequences, either near at hand and certain, or remote and doubtful: to be in danger of being killed. Hazard suggests a danger that one can foresee but cannot avoid: A mountain climber is exposed to many hazards. Peril usually denotes great and imminent danger: The passengers on the disabled ship were in great peril. Jeopardy, a less common word, has essentially the same meaning as peril, but emphasizes exposure to the chances of a situation: To save his friend he put his life in jeopardy.

Example Sentences

The dangers, should a fire roar down the canyon, were painfully clear at a thousand feet.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

A five-year-old boy who drowned during a family holiday in Greece was an "excitable, happy, loving little child" with "no sense of danger", an inquest has heard.

Read more on BBC

But the dangers in this region are many, and the risk seemed clear that he was declaring the ultimate deal before really landing it.

Read more on BBC

One of those who knows the dangers of problem gambling all too well is Zoe who, after the birth of their child, discovered money had mysteriously gone missing from her bank account.

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Europe’s consumers and steel-using industries are the latest victims in what is in danger of becoming a Hobbesian global trade war of all against all.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• crisis 
• emergency 
• exposure 
• insecurity 
• instability 
• jeopardy 
• menace 
• peril 
• pitfall 
• possibility 
• probability 
• risk 
• threat 
• uncertainty 
• vulnerability