perilous
/ˈpɛɹ.ɪ.ləs/
perilous adjective: dangerous, full of peril.
Adjective
perilous (comparative more perilous, superlative most perilous)
- Dangerous, full of peril.
- Three miles or more to our starboard is a low dim line. It is the Eastern shore of Central Africa. We are running to the southward, before the North East Monsoon, between the mainland and the reef that for hundreds of miles fringes this perilous coast.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
- The effects are already being felt. Gamma radiation is flooding through the gaps; the quick-breeding viruses are mutating through half the world, faster than the Medical Art can control them, so that millions of us are sneezing and choking—and dying, too, for lack of antibiotics and proper care....1963, Lester del Rey, The Sky Is Falling
- Synonyms:
- treacherous
perilous meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
perilous in Hindi
- perilous
- जोखिमी jokhimī
- perilous, portending disaster, catastrophic
- संकटमय saṅkaṭmay
perilous in Tamil
- கடுந்தொல்லை, பேரிடர்
perilous in Urdu
- perilous
- جوکھمی jōkhimī
perilous in Telugu
- perilous, hazardous
- భయంకరము bhayaṅkaramu
More languagesFewer languages
- perilous in Malayalam
- ആപത്കരമായ, സങ്കടാക്രാന്തമായ, അപകടകരമായ, ആപൽക്കരമായ
- perilous in Kannada
- ಅಪಾಯಕರವಾದ, ಭಯಾನಕ, ಗಂಡಾಂತರಕ್ಕೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕುವಂಥ
- perilous in Tagalog
- delikado
- perilous in Arabic
- مخوف maḵūf
Examples of perilous in a sentence
- According to my understanding, the situation is quite perilous. I wonder if you see it this way, too.
- Their movements seem spastic in their capriciousness and perilous in their execution.
- Males hoping for acceptance must undergo a perilous rite de passage.
Synonyms of perilous
Forms of perilous
| comparative | more perilous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most perilous |
| alternative poetic | per'lous |
| alternative form (obsolete) | perelles |
| alternative form (archaic) | perillous |
| alternative form (obsolete) | perlous |
Origin of perilous
From Middle English perilous, from Old French perilleus, equivalent to peril + -ous, from the noun peril, or from Latin perīculōsus. Doublet of periculous.
Words formed from perilous
Phrases with perilous
Questions about perilous
- What does perilous mean?
- Perilous means dangerous, full of peril.
- What is perilous in Hindi?
- Perilous in Hindi is जोखिमी (jokhimī), संकटमय (saṅkaṭmay). See Perilous meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is perilous?
- Perilous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce perilous?
- Perilous is pronounced /ˈpɛɹ.ɪ.ləs/.
Words near perilous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: perilous (page history and authors); जोखिमी (Hindi) (page history and authors); perilous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); جوکھمی (Urdu) (page history and authors); భయంకరము (Telugu) (page history and authors); perilous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perilous (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: en-us-perilous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “perilous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perilous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.