peril
Americannoun
-
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:
As in the thriller, anxious local leaders debated whether publicizing the peril would scare off tourists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
By leaning on an anthropomorphic narrative, Silicon Valley attempts to repackage its specific human choices that led to experimental, powerful models behaving unexpectedly during tests as an existential peril.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
In places like Minneapolis and Des Moines, Iowa, insurers are factoring in hail and severe convective storms, ICE added, which is a “a peril that is frequently overlooked but is now driving double-digit increases.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
It was a deceptively idyllic setting for what authorities say is continued lawbreaking and peril, which authorities just can’t seem to quash.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
There was real peril negotiating the curve at the top of the arch.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Brighton was mentioned as a potential senior debut, but the perils around that made, for those close to Gabriel, the Champions League encounter with Sabah a better option.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Plus, China’s latest AI advances, always-on transcription and the perils of big AI contracts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Just a couple of days before that now-infamous blog post, the firm inadvertently provided a different, no-less-perfect example of the perils of mass digitization.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
The perils of leaving a five-star review on a wing and a prayer.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
He set it with traps, and tricks, and hidden perils.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
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
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
One night last week an old dog periled the Earl's new job.
From Time Magazine Archive
The greatest caution was necessary in doing this, for he periled his own life by the manifestation of any sympathy for the accused.
From Josephine Makers of History by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
Captain Shier was as gallant an officer as any who periled his life on that famous battle field; and not only a fine soldier but a polished scholar and an accomplished gentleman as well.
From Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War by James Harvey Kidd
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
He reconnoitred every available point, searched every corner of possible danger, and as the time passed he began to rage with impatience against Dick, whose delay was now periling the success of the enterprise.
From The Iron Game A Tale of the War by Henry F. (Henry Francis) Keenan
For now it came to me that while I would be saving life, mayhap I had been periling it again.
From The Master of Appleby A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part with the Great Struggle in the Two Carolinas; but Chiefly with the Adventures Therein of Two Gentlemen Who Loved One and the Same Lady by Francis Lynde
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
There was a mystery connected with her periling her life in the way she did that I could not then solve, but I made no inquiry into her secret.
From Uncle Daniel's Story Of "Tom" Anderson And Twenty Great Battles by John McElroy
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
They perilled all upon the issue; and the issue went against them.
From An Address, Delivered Before the Was-ah Ho-de-no-son-ne or New Confederacy of the Iroquois Also, Genundewah, a Poem by William H. C. (William Howe Cuyler) Hosmer
She used the church to drag Her life from something, took it for a bladder To float her soul when it was perilled.
From Domesday Book by Edgar Lee Masters
Directly he seemed to have the end in his hand, and they saw him stretch the left arm as if to throw it around the body of the perilled man.
From The Coward A Novel of Society and the Field in 1863 by Henry Morford
It is wonderful how truth has been perilled by passion.
From The Limits Of Atheism Or, Why should Sceptics be Outlaws? by George Jacob Holyoake
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
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
Ten of these were serving in the Union army perilling their lives to maintain that national fabric, which their illustrious ancestor had done so much to establish.
From Benjamin Franklin A Picture of the Struggles of Our Infant Nation One Hundred Years Ago American Pioneers and Patriots Series by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
But he answered, that "he could not stop to calculate chances, when his subjects were perilling their lives for his sake;" a reply, says Pulgar, which endeared him to the whole army.
From The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 2 by William Hickling Prescott
We saw him t’other night perilling his life to stop the poor crazy prentices, and save the foreigners.
From The Armourer's Prentices by Charlotte Mary Yonge
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.
