Dangerous

How to spell dangerous

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dangerous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dangerous mean?

1. adjectiveLikely to cause harm, injury, or loss.

Dangerous in a sentence

• The icy road was too dangerous to drive on at night.

• Workers wore helmets in the dangerous part of the construction site.

Where does dangerous come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French dangereus, which meant 'difficult, arrogant, or threatening', built on dangier (modern French danger). That French noun traces back to the Vulgar Latin dominiarium, meaning 'power or lordship', from the Latin dominus, meaning 'lord or master'. The earliest sense was tied to being in someone's power or at their mercy, since to be in another's 'danger' meant to be subject to their control and liable to harm. English borrowed it in the 1200s and gradually narrowed the meaning to the modern idea of something likely to cause injury or loss. The spelling trap is the unstressed ending: writers know it sounds like 'jur-us' yet must remember the -ger- spelling and the -ous suffix rather than -us or -ious.

How the word is built

• danger (peril, risk)
• -ous (full of, having the quality of)