Safer

How to spell safer

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce safer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does safer mean?

1. adjectiveMore free from harm, danger, or risk than something else.

Safer in a sentence

• Taking the train felt safer than driving through the storm.

• The new locks make the office much safer at night.

Where does safer come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the comparative form of the adjective 'safe', which English took from Old French 'sauf', meaning 'unharmed' or 'secure'. The Old French word descended from the Latin 'salvus', which literally meant 'uninjured, healthy, or whole'; the same Latin root gives us 'salvage', 'salvation', and 'salute'. English adopted 'safe' in the 1200s and built the regular comparative by adding '-er', a native Germanic ending used to mark the 'more' degree of short adjectives. The silent 'e' of 'safe' is dropped before the suffix, so the spelling is simply 'safer' rather than 'safeer'. Because the word is short and the ending is so familiar, the only real point to remember is that single 'f' carried over from 'safe'.

How the word is built

• safe (from Latin salvus: unharmed, well)
• -er (comparative suffix)