Word.ws English Dictionary

precarious

Syllables: pre·ca·ri·ous/pɹɪˈkɛəɹi.əs/

precarious adjective: dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.

Adjective (1)

precarious (comparative more precarious, superlative most precarious)

  1. (comparable) Dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.
    • One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
    • Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious.1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter III, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1 (The Wild)
  2. Depending on the intention of another.

Adjective (2)

precarious (not comparable)

  1. Relating to incipient caries.

precarious meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

precarious in Tamil

இடர் செறிந்த, ஐயத்திற்கிடமான, நிலையற்ற

precarious in Urdu

نازک, غیر محفوظ

precarious in Bengali

অনিশ্চিত, বিপজ্জনক

precarious in Telugu

precarious, dangerous
ప్రమాదకరం pramādakaraṁ
More languagesFewer languages
precarious in Malayalam
സന്ദിഗ്ദ്ധമായ, അനിശ്ചിതമായ, സുരക്ഷിതമല്ലാത്ത, അസ്ഥിരമായ
precarious in Kannada
ಕಂಡಿತವಲ್ಲದ, ಕುತ್ತದ, ಅಭದ್ರ, ಅಸ್ಥಿರ

Examples of precarious in a sentence

  • Bakke has shaped a precarious context for diversity initiatives in higher education.
  • The United States kept laissez-faire too long and it let us drift into a precarious predicament.
  • “We are at a really precarious time in our history.

All 25 example sentences with precarious

Synonyms of precarious

All synonyms of precarious

Forms of precarious

comparativemore precarious
superlativemost precarious

Origin of precarious

From Latin precārius (“begged for, obtained by entreaty”), from prex, precis (“prayer”). Compare French précaire, Portuguese precário, and Spanish and Italian precario.

From pre- + carious.

Words formed from precarious

Words that rhyme with precarious

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about precarious

What does precarious mean?
Precarious means dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.
What is precarious in Tamil?
Precarious in Tamil is இடர் செறிந்த, ஐயத்திற்கிடமான, நிலையற்ற. See Precarious meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is precarious?
Precarious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce precarious?
Precarious is pronounced /pɹɪˈkɛəɹi.əs/ (UK).

Words near precarious in the dictionary

  1. precare
  2. precaria
  3. precarial
  4. precariat
  5. precariats
  6. precarious
  7. precariously
  8. precariousness
  9. precarisation
  10. precarisations
  11. precarities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: precarious (page history and authors); precarious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); precarious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); precarious (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ప్రమాదకరం (Telugu) (page history and authors); precarious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); precarious (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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