hazard

American  

[haz-erd] / ˈhæz ərd /

noun

• hazards
  plural

1. an unavoidable danger or risk, even though often foreseeable.

   The job was full of hazards.

   Antonyms:

   safety

2. something causing unavoidable danger, peril, risk, or difficulty.

   The many hazards of the big city did nothing to convince her to leave.

3. the absence or lack of predictability; chance; uncertainty.

   There is an element of hazard in the execution of the most painstaking plans.

   Synonyms:

   fortuitousness, fortuity, accident

4. Golf. a bunker, sand trap, or the like, constituting an obstacle.

5. the uncertainty of the result in throwing a die.

6. a game played with two dice, an earlier and more complicated form of craps.

7. Court Tennis. any of the winning openings.

8. (in English billiards) a stroke by which the player pockets the object ball winning hazard or their own ball after contact with another ball losing hazard.

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verb (used with object)

• hazards,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hazarded,
  past participle,  past
• hazarding
  present participle

1. to offer (a statement, conjecture, etc.) with the possibility of facing criticism, disapproval, failure, or the like; venture.

   He hazarded a guess, with trepidation, as to her motives in writing the article.

2. to put to the risk of being lost; expose to risk.

   In making the investment, he hazarded all his savings.

   Synonyms:

   imperil, peril, endanger, stake

3. to take or run the risk of (a misfortune, penalty, etc.).

   Thieves hazard arrest.

4. to venture upon (anything of doubtful issue).

   to hazard a dangerous encounter.

idioms

1. at hazard, at risk; at stake; subject to chance.

   His reputation was at hazard in his new ventures.

hazard British  

/ ˈhæzəd /

noun

1. exposure or vulnerability to injury, loss, evil, etc

2. at risk; in danger

3. a thing likely to cause injury, etc

4. golf an obstacle such as a bunker, a road, rough, water, etc

5. chance; accident (esp in the phrase by hazard )

6. a gambling game played with two dice

7. real tennis

   1. the receiver's side of the court

   2. one of the winning openings

8. billiards a scoring stroke made either when a ball other than the striker's is pocketed ( winning hazard ) or the striker's cue ball itself ( losing hazard )

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verb

1. to chance or risk

2. to venture (an opinion, guess, etc)

3. to expose to danger

Synonym Usage

See danger.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hazarder
  noun
• hazard-free
  adjective
• hazardable
  adjective
• hazardless
  adjective
• prehazard
  adjective
• unhazarded
  adjective
• unhazarding
  adjective
• well-hazarded
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hazards
  plural

Participles

• hazarding
  present
• hazarded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• hazard
  simple
• hazards
  simple
• have hazarded
  perfect
• has hazarded
  perfect
• am hazarding
  progressive
• are hazarding
  progressive
• is hazarding
  progressive
• have been hazarding
  perfect progressive
• has been hazarding
  perfect progressive

Past

• hazarded
  simple
• had hazarded
  perfect
• was hazarding
  progressive
• were hazarding
  progressive
• had been hazarding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will hazard
  simple
• will have hazarded
  perfect
• will be hazarding
  progressive
• will have been hazarding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of hazard

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English hasard from Old French, perhaps from Arabic al-zahr “the die”

Explanation

If something is a hazard, it is a potential source of danger. Balloons are fun, but they're a hazard for little kids who might put them in their mouths. If you play miniature golf, you have to watch for hazards on the course — obstacles like the sand trap beside the dinosaur or the water hazard just past the windmill. As a verb, hazard means to take a risk, especially for the chance of a good return. You might hazard your chances at the roulette table or hazard a guess — that is, risk making a guess when you aren't certain.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hazard hazards hazarded hazarding

Zone Zero is only one line of wildfire defense required by the state in areas with significant fire hazard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

But a hard-to-access front towards the German border remains a concern -- with residents in the border town of Monschau already under evacuation orders due to the smoke hazard.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

Bagehot would recognize the goal: Reduce the encouragement to take risk, known as moral hazard, that offering guarantees in advance creates, but retain the ability to mount a rescue in a crisis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Her crew, who are primarily indigenous, have carried out prescribed burns, also known as a hazard reduction burns – a practice of setting planned, controlled blazes to remove fuels that could contribute to wildfires.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

What the others aimed to do with their food, I wouldn’t hazard to guess.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

But it’s to the city’s west, where suburbs fuse into the coastal pines, that fire hazards have soared.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

Melting glaciers and thawing permafrost can also destabilise mountain slopes, increasing the risk of landslides and other hazards.

From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026

"Over time, they fracture into smaller, harder-to-track pieces that pose hazards to vessels and resource operations."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026

In Europe, regulators have flagged the potential hazards related to hidden handles and drafted new standards to ensure they still work even if a car's power is cut off.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

His tracks led toward the east buttress of Denali, straight through a labyrinth of giant crevasses, evidence that he had made no apparent effort to circumvent obvious hazards.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

I hazarded a number of guesses as to where the movement, and more importantly the reaction to it, was headed.

From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2022

Edward Holmes does not like making predictions, but last year he hazarded a few.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 19, 2021

McKinsey hazarded a guess: anywhere between $75 billion and $100 billion a year, or between 15 and 20 percent of the Pentagon’s annual expenses.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 5, 2016

“I think,” my friend hazarded, “that she just doesn’t hesitate.”

From Slate ● Mar. 7, 2016

“It’s like somebody’s twisting something inside me,” I hazarded.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

By 1858, the famous Butterfield stagecoaches were ferrying the mail through the cut over the pass, hazarding a vertiginous angle comparable with San Francisco’s Lombard Street, without the switchbacks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

Borinsky invites guesses; the problem is that we might not care enough for any of the people or ideas onstage to bother hazarding them.

From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2023

Yet nowhere in the Federalist essays do any of the authors explain why liberty is so valuable that it is worth hazarding the consequences of human nature.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 4, 2022

In August, Seaman Apprentice Ryan Mays was charged with aggravated arson and the willful hazarding of a vessel.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2021

I feared early instilled prejudice: I wanted to have you safe before hazarding confidences.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Related Words

• accident
• mishap
• possibility
• risk