Danger

How to spell danger

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce danger

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does danger mean?

1. nounThe possibility of suffering harm, injury, or loss.

Danger in a sentence

• The workers ignored the danger posed by the loose scaffolding.

• Heavy rain put the campers in real danger near the river.

Where does danger come from?

Language of origin: French

Danger arrived in English in the 1200s from Old French dangier, which meant 'power' or 'jurisdiction', especially a lord's authority over someone. That French word traces back through Vulgar Latin dominiarium to the Latin dominus, meaning 'lord' or 'master', the same root that gives us 'dominate' and 'dominion'. At first danger in English carried this idea of being in another person's power; to be 'in someone's danger' meant to be under their control or at their mercy. From the notion of being at another's mercy the meaning slid toward the exposure to harm that such powerlessness implied, and by the late Middle Ages danger had settled into its modern sense of risk or peril. The lordly 'dom' origin has been worn down so far that the spelling now gives no hint of dominus, which is why the silent shift from dom- to dang- can feel surprising.

How the word is built

• dang- (from Latin dominus: lord, master, via Old French dangier: power, control)
• -er (noun suffix)