threatening
Americanadjective
-
tending or intended to menace.
threatening gestures.
-
causing alarm, as by being imminent; ominous; sinister.
threatening clouds.
Related Words
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of threatening
Explanation
Anything that's threatening is ominous, or scary on purpose. A bully's deep, threatening voice might frighten other children in the neighborhood. Threatening things are done in a way that expresses an intention to hurt someone. A threatening letter from your neighbor might warn of his plan to call the police if you play your music too loudly. Another neighbor angrily shaking a fist in the direction of your barking dog is threatening too. Unintentionally threatening things include looming storm clouds and terrifying waves crashing onto the beach after a hurricane.
Vocabulary lists containing threatening
myPerspectives 7.2
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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.
Already it has rattled Gulf Arab states by hitting their airports and energy facilities throughout the war, crimping their economic lifelines and threatening their business models.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
Samsung workers demand 15% of operating profit for bonuses, threatening a strike that could impact 3% of global memory-chip production.
From Barron's • May 20, 2026
But human development and the wildfires we create have destroyed swaths of their habitat, and climate change is threatening to make much of what remains inhospitable.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
Those assaults remind us not only of the power of satire, but also of how its targets can find the slice of comedians’ jokes threatening.
From Salon • May 19, 2026
As Alexei grew older, and the hemorrhages more life threatening, Alexandra began to rely on a Russian monk of legendary unctuousness, Grigory Rasputin, who promised to heal the czar-to-be.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
