Hazard

How to spell hazard

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hazard

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hazard mean?

1. nounA source of danger or a risk of harm or loss.
2. verbTo venture or risk something, or to put forward a guess despite uncertainty.

Hazard in a sentence

• noun

  The oil spill created a serious hazard on the factory floor.

• verb

  She would hazard a guess that the meeting had been cancelled.

• noun

  Engineers assessed every possible hazard before approving the bridge design.

• verb

  He refused to hazard his savings on such an uncertain venture.

Where does hazard come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

Hazard came into English in the 1200s through the Old French word hasard, which named a game played with dice. The French term is widely traced back, by way of Spanish azar, to the Arabic az-zahr, meaning 'the die' or 'the dice', so the word literally began as a piece of gambling equipment. Because throwing dice is uncertain and risky, the meaning drifted from the game itself to the idea of chance, then to the modern sense of danger or a thing that could cause harm. The verb sense, to 'hazard' a guess or to risk something, preserves that older gambling flavour of taking a chance. The single z and the plain -ard ending are the main spelling points to watch, since the word looks simpler than its colourful history suggests.

How the word is built

• hazard (a single root from Old French hasard, a game of dice); it does not break into English prefix or suffix parts