peril
Americannoun
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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:
The Swiss Re Institute warned Tuesday that wildfire risk is the fastest-growing weather peril globally.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
"Wildfire risk has so far accounted for only a relatively small share of insured losses in Europe. Yet it is the fastest-growing weather peril globally," the company said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
It’s a system that has worked for decades, but it may be in peril, as the 12-bed private nonprofit hospital’s leaders are concerned it won’t be able to survive its current financial challenges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Also on the front page, "migrants face new Channel peril" after 173 people were rescued from a fire aboard a "mega dinghy".
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
But you return now as a member of the Ring’s Company, and you are in peril as long as you remain with us.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
The perils of leaving a five-star review on a wing and a prayer.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
“ProPublica’s reporting shows the perils of not having this law,” Rubin said.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026
But by steering the live-action Prime Video adaptation directly into the anxieties of the zeitgeist, showrunner Eric Kripke has transformed the superhero satire into a terrifying tale about the perils of authoritarianism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
If we call the cops on teens violating a city curfew, it suggests a cavalier attitude toward the perils of the justice system.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026
The Hobbits were grieved at this parting; for Aragorn had never failed them and he had been their guide through many perils.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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
One night last week an old dog periled the Earl's new job.
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
It is but natural that the people should turn with beaming eyes and grateful hearts to the heroic Union soldiers who have nobly periled their all in defence of their country.
From Campaign of the Fourteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers by J. Newton Terrill
"Uncounted gold shall be given to the man whose brave right hand, For the love of the periled city, plucks down yon burning brand!"
From Poems Teachers Ask For Selected by readers of "Normal Instructor-Primary Plans" by Various
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
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
Too comfortable in his feelings to keep still, as indeed was indispensable to the most steady among us, he kept constantly lurching about, and periling us with a capsizing repeatedly.
From Forest Life and Forest Trees: comprising winter camp-life among the loggers, and wild-wood adventure. with Descriptions of lumbering operations on the various rivers of Maine and New Brunswick by John S. Springer
He had informed Butler's agent; he had watched day and night; had given the Unionists plans of the grounds; was now periling his own rescue to bring the arch-traitor to his doom.
From The Iron Game A Tale of the War by Henry F. (Henry Francis) Keenan
It was impossible to touch the mud of Paris without periling the subsistence of eighteen hundred persons.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 by Various
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
So long as I supported the mad troop, I could count upon her, even though it perilled her soul.
From Deep Moat Grange by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
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
While I love my country as well as any man, and in this enterprise cheerfully perilled my life to serve it, I was only his co-worker: I should not have undertaken it alone.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 86, December, 1864 by Various
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
It is not impossible, however, that in taking this step I may be perilling my own safety.
From Maurice Tiernay Soldier of Fortune by Charles James Lever
I thought I was perilling my head by coming here, and you tell me I have saved it.
From Vera or, The Nihilists by Oscar Wilde
That wife, whom it is your greatest pleasure to win to smiles, wears a half-sad look as she meets these proofs of love; she fears that you are perilling too much for her pleasure.
From Dream Life A Fable Of The Seasons by Donald Grant Mitchell
"Ay, but methinks the Soldan might regard it as too unequal a mode of perilling the chance of a royal bride and the event of a great war," said the Emir.
From The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott
However much her demagogues may have exerted their oratorical powers at home, they carefully avoided perilling either life or limb in the cause of the revolution.
From Pius IX. And His Time by Æneas MacDonell Dawson
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.
