Threat

How to spell threat

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce threat

What does threat mean?

1. nounA declared or implied intention to cause harm, damage, or punishment, or something regarded as a likely danger.

Threat in a sentence

• The company treated the email as a serious threat to its security.

• Rising sea levels pose a real threat to the coastal town.

Where does threat come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, descending from the Old English noun þreat, which originally meant a crowd or a throng and also carried the sense of oppression, pressure, or affliction. It traces back to a Germanic root tied to the idea of pushing or pressing, the same notion of force that survives in the related verb 'thrust'. Over the medieval period the meaning narrowed from general pressure to the specific idea of a declared intention to do harm, which is how we use it today. The spelling keeps the old 'ea' cluster that now sounds like a short 'e', the same quiet trap found in 'sweat' and 'dread', so the eye expects 'thret' while the page demands 'threat'. The verb 'threaten' is built directly on this noun and preserves the same root.

How the word is built

• threat (from Old English þreat: a crowd, pressure, or affliction)