Word.ws English Dictionary

peril

/ˈpɛɹɪl/

peril noun: a situation of serious and immediate danger.

Noun

peril (countable and uncountable, plural perils)

  1. A situation of serious and immediate danger.
    • Your life is in peril.
  2. Something that causes, contains, or presents danger.
    • the perils of the jungle (animals and insects, weather, etc.)
  3. An event which causes a loss, or the risk of a specific such event.

Verb

peril (third-person singular simple present perils, present participle (US) periling or (UK) perilling, simple past and past participle (US) periled or (UK) perilled)

  1. (transitive) To cause to be in danger; to imperil; to risk.
    • And are we, Mr. President, who stood by our country then, who threw open our coffers, who bared our bosoms, who freely perilled all in that conflict, to be reproached with want of attachment to the Union?1830, Robert Hayne, Speech in the United States Senate
    • Remember how much she had perilled for a fine house and gorgeous furniture, for carriages and horses, jewels and laces; and do not wonder if she clings with a desperate tenacity to gauds and gew-gaws, in the hour of her despair.1862, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret

peril meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

peril in Tamil

ஆபத்து, சிக்கல்

peril in Urdu

peril
جوکھم jokhim

peril in Bengali

বিপদ, ঝুঁকি

peril in Telugu

peril, danger
అపాయము apāyamu
More languagesFewer languages
peril in Malayalam
കക്ഷി kakṣi
peril in Kannada
ಗೊಡ್ಡ goḍḍa
peril in Arabic
خَطَر ḵaṭar

Examples of peril in a sentence

  • With an 80% loss rate for each year’s chicks, the hoiho’s existence is in peril.
  • To understand the perils of underestimating Russia, you don't have to go back that far.
  • Atmospheric Southern gothic, and a “psycho-biddy” (old people in peril) classic.

All 36 example sentences with peril

Synonyms of peril

All synonyms of peril

Forms of peril

Noun
pluralperils
Verb
third-person singular presentperils
present participle USperiling
present participle UKperilling
past participle USperiled
past USperiled
past participle UKperilled
past UKperilled

Plural of peril: perils

Origin of peril

From Middle English peril, from Old French peril, from Latin perīculum. Doublet of periculum.

Words formed from peril

Phrases with peril

Questions about peril

What does peril mean?
Peril means a situation of serious and immediate danger.
What is peril in Tamil?
Peril in Tamil is ஆபத்து, சிக்கல். See Peril meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is peril?
Peril can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce peril?
Peril is pronounced /ˈpɛɹɪl/.
What is the plural of peril?
The plural of peril is perils.

Words near peril in the dictionary

  1. perikrone
  2. perikrones
  3. perikrons
  4. perikyma
  5. perikymata
  6. peril
  7. peril point
  8. peril points
  9. perilabyrinthine
  10. perilacunar
  11. perilacustrine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: peril (page history and authors); peril (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); جوکھم (Urdu) (page history and authors); peril (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); అపాయము (Telugu) (page history and authors); കക്ഷി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಗೊಡ್ಡ (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-peril.wav.

Cite this entry: “peril.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/peril. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.