Jeopardize

How to spell jeopardize

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce jeopardize

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jeopardize mean?

1. verbTo put something valuable at risk of loss, harm, or failure.

Jeopardize in a sentence

• Missing the deadline could jeopardize the entire contract.

• He refused to jeopardize his reputation by signing the false report.

Where does jeopardize come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Old French phrase jeu parti, which literally meant a 'divided game', that is, a contest in which the two sides had equal chances and the outcome was genuinely uncertain. English borrowed the phrase in the 1300s as the noun 'jeopardy', first applied to the even odds of a chess problem or a wager, then broadening to mean any uncertain situation and finally settling on the modern sense of danger or risk. The verb 'jeopardize' was built later, around the early 1600s and popularised in the 1700s, simply by adding the active suffix -ize to the noun stem. Some careful writers of the eighteenth century actually objected to it as an ugly, unnecessary coinage, but it survived and is now entirely standard. The buried French jeu (game) is the reason the spelling opens with the odd-looking 'jeop-' rather than anything that matches the way the word sounds.

How the word is built

• jeopard- (from Old French jeu parti, a divided or even game)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix)

British and American spelling

Jeopardize is the American spelling. British English spells it jeopardise.