sword of Damocles

American

noun

any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster.

Sword of Damocles British

noun

a closely impending disaster

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

sword of Damocles Idioms

Also, Damocles' sword. Impending disaster, as in The likelihood of lay-offs has been a sword of Damocles over the department for months. This expression alludes to the legend of Damocles, a servile courtier to King Dionysius I of Syracuse. The king, weary of Damocles' obsequious flattery, invited him to a banquet and seated him under a sword hung by a single hair, so as to point out to him the precariousness of his position. The idiom was first recorded in 1747. The same story gave rise to the expression hang by a thread.

Etymology

Origin of sword of Damocles

First recorded in 1810–20

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.

But even then, the rare earths situation could stay unresolved, “hanging like a sword of Damocles over many companies’ heads,” Gave says.

From Barron's • Oct. 21, 2025

He said many veterans now effectively had a "sword of Damocles hanging over them again".

From BBC • Jul. 15, 2025

The tragic message of Oppenheimer and “Oppenheimer” is that humankind has lived under a nuclear sword of Damocles ever since.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2023

They aren't terrorists and the default sword of Damocles still hovers.

From Salon • May 31, 2023

We know what sword of Damocles hangs over his head—an electric razor for the military school crewcut Mundín would have to get.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023