menace
Americannoun
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something that threatens to cause evil, harm, injury, etc.; a threat.
Air pollution is a menace to health.
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a person whose actions, attitudes, or ideas are considered dangerous or harmful.
When he gets behind the wheel of a car, he's a real menace.
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an extremely annoying person.
verb (used with object)
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to utter or direct a threat against; threaten.
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to serve as a probable threat to; imperil.
overdevelopment that menaces our suburbs.
verb (used without object)
verb
noun
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literary a threat or the act of threatening
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something menacing; a source of danger
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informal a nuisance
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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menacesimple
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menacessimple
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have menacedperfect
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has menacedperfect
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am menacingprogressive
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are menacingprogressive
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is menacingprogressive
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have been menacingperfect progressive
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has been menacingperfect progressive
Past
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menacedsimple
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had menacedperfect
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was menacingprogressive
-
were menacingprogressive
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had been menacingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of menace
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English manace, manance, from Middle French manace, menace, from Late Latin minācia “threat,” equivalent to mināc- (stem of mināx ) “jutting out, threatening” + -ia; verb from noun; see -ia
Explanation
If it's threatening you or otherwise posing some sort of danger, then it's a menace. Angry rabid dogs, smog clouds, and annoying little brothers are all probable menaces. The word menace works as both a noun and a verb, but it wasn't used to describe threatening or bothersome people until 1936. Before then, common menaces probably included things like the plague, locusts, and roving bands of pirate ships. Today, a bad reputation can menace an otherwise promising career, weeds can menace your garden, and burglars are a menace to society.
Vocabulary lists containing menace
May the 4th Be With You: Star Wars Words
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Vocabulary from the Lyrics of Kanye West
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"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe
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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:
Meanwhile, Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi, arguably the world's best right back, was a constant menace both on the ball and in the Canadian players' faces, while creative fulcrum Brahim Diaz claimed two assists.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Popular culture has often portrayed the species as a dangerous menace, contributing to a reputation that many scientists argue is exaggerated.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 26, 2026
The report defines “forced labor” as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
"There's some menace, there's this animal component in Max Cady that has always been there, that is so physical," Bardem told journalists ahead of the June 5 series' release on Apple TV.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
Lowell’s Martians were benign and hopeful, even a little godlike, very different from the malevolent menace posed by Wells and Welles in The War of the Worlds.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
EU officials said that as part of the efforts they want to step up the mandatory registration of drones across the bloc to be able to better keep track of potential menaces.
From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026
The book’s most edifying compilations recount the Soviet people’s unconquerable yearning to live, create and love freely, despite the daily menaces of a police state and deafening propaganda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 16, 2025
It is a disgrace, he says, that the energy firms can send out "menaces" like that over a problem of their making.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2025
Judging from critical success in their careers, the Chrises have all played an array of roles — from lovable goofballs to cold-hearted menaces — and starred in box office hits and box office flops.
From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2022
Speaking from the White House, President Eisenhower said he sent troops because “Mob rule in Little Rock menaces the very safety of the United States and the free world.”
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
Sporting what they regard as a face “the color of boiled turnips,” he is first discovered sitting on a steamer trunk in the hall, ripe to be menaced by the family’s dogs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Even when the whole family is menaced, as in “Poltergeist,” the evil entities have a special yearning to possess little blonde girls.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2025
Riddle of Fire Rated PG-13 for menaced kids and mumbled dialogue.
From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2024
Not the craggy summit looking over the Owens Valley 10,000 feet below nor the nearly vertical, several-hundred-foot drop that menaced just a few steps to the right.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
The hammer kept the gods of Asgard safe from all the dangers that menaced them and the world.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
What makes France so menacing to any other team left in this World Cup is how total its control can be.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The straw has a strange menacing string running through it and poking out of the tip, and the cup’s utility is squished into near-unrecognizability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
“It’s so deeply strange — dark and funny, hopeful and menacing all at once,” Philbin said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
I've come to an industrial space in a tech-heavy area of San Francisco expecting to see a menacing humanoid robot solider doing something combat-like: the future of land-based warfare, perhaps.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026
Instead of the menacing green of army uniforms, the shine of boot and gun, he saw a brown caftan and flat slippers and a familiar face that took him a moment to recognize: Miss Adebayo.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
