Endangered

How to spell endangered

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce endangered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does endangered mean?

1. adjectiveOf a species or population, seriously at risk of dying out completely.
2. adjectivePut into a position of harm, risk, or threat.

Endangered in a sentence

• The panda remains an endangered species despite years of conservation work.

• Reckless driving left every passenger endangered on the icy road.

• The charity raises money to protect endangered wildlife across Asia.

• The leak left thousands of customer accounts endangered by fraud.

Where does endangered come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows out of 'danger', which English took from the Old French 'dangier', meaning a lord's power or dominion over someone. That French word traces back through Vulgar Latin 'dominiarium' to the Latin 'dominus', meaning 'lord' or 'master', so the earliest sense was being in someone's power rather than facing harm; to be 'in danger' first meant to be in another's control. By the late Middle Ages the idea of being subject to a master had shaded into the modern sense of risk and peril. In the 1500s English added the prefix 'en-', meaning 'to put into', to coin the verb 'endanger', literally 'to put into peril', and 'endangered' is its participle. The doubled awkwardness for spellers is invisible: the unstressed middle '-dan-' and the single 'g' before 'er' both sound vaguer than they look, and the familiar root 'danger' is the anchor that keeps the spelling honest.

How the word is built

• en- (to put into)
• danger (peril, from Old French dangier)
• -ed (past-participle/adjective suffix)