safety

/ˈseɪfti/

safety noun: the condition or feeling of being safe; security; certainty.

Noun

safety (countable and uncountable, plural safeties)

The condition or feeling of being safe; security; certainty.
- If you push it to the limit, safety is not guaranteed.
- He managed to reach the border and escape to safety.
Antonyms:

danger
A safety lock or safety catch: a mechanism on a weapon or dangerous equipment designed to prevent accidental firing or operation.
- Be sure that the safety is set before proceeding.
Preservation from escape; close custody.
- […] imprison him, […] / Deliver him to safety; and return,c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
An instance of a player being sacked or tackled in the end zone, or stepping out of the end zone and off the field, resulting in two points to the opposite team.
- He sacked the quarterback in the end zone for a safety.
Any of the defensive players who are in position furthest from the line of scrimmage and whose responsibility is to defend against passes as well as to be the tacklers of last resort.
- The free safety made a game-saving tackle on the runner who had broken past the linebackers.
A safety squeeze.
- Boy wondered about that bunt. He had a notion Fowler would commit himself soon because time was on the go. But Fowler didn’t, making it another sweep of three Pirates. He had thus far given up only two safeties.1952, Bernard Malamud, The Natural, Time Life Books, published 1966, page 225
A safety shot or sequence of such shots.
- That was a poor safety from Higgins.
- After thirty minutes of safety, Selby finally potted a red, to ironic cheers.
(dated) A safety bicycle.
- Many wheelmen and wheelwomen, riding safeties, tandems and tricycles, stopped there during the evening and we had good opportunity for comparing American and English bicycles […]1897, American Architect and Architecture, volumes 57-58, page 51
- There are cyclists, like Mr. F. T. Bidlake, who prefer a tricycle to a safety, and to such men a long ride on a tricycle is no more fatiguing than a safety bicycle ride of the same distance.1921, W. F. Grew, The Cycle Industry, London, page 22

Verb

safety (third-person singular simple present safeties, present participle safetying, simple past and past participle safetied)

(transitive) To secure (a mechanical component, as in aviation) to keep it from becoming detached even under vibration.
to secure a firing pin, as in guns, to keep the gun from firing
- Time went back to normal for him; he safetied his own weapon and dropped it, jumping forward.2011, Time Crime, page 92
- Osborne lay propped up on one elbow, his pistol cocked, his aim wavering in the general direction the man had gone. Finally he safetied it, stuffed it in the holster on his right hip, and reached for his cell phone in his jacket pocket. But it was gone.2012, Blowout, page 343

safety meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

safety in Hindi

condition or feeling of being safe: सुरक्षा surakṣā, सलामती salāmtī, सेफ़्टी sefṭī, हिफ़ाज़त hifāzat, अमान amān

safety in Tamil

condition or feeling of being safe: பாதுகாப்பு pātukāppu

safety in Marathi

safety: सुरक्षा surakṣā

safety in Urdu

condition or feeling of being safe: حِفاظَت hifāzat, اَمان amān, اَمْنِیَت amniyat

More languagesFewer languages

safety in Bengali: নিরাপত্তা nirapotta
safety in Telugu: సురక్షితము surakṣitamu
safety in Malayalam: സുരക്ഷിതത്വം
safety in Kannada: ಕ್ಷೇಮ kṣēma
safety in Punjabi: ਸਲਾਮਤੀ salāmtī
safety in Gujarati: સુરક્ષા surakṣā
safety in Sanskrit: सुरक्षा surakṣā
safety in Pashto: امنيه amnya, خونديتوب xwanditob
safety in Tagalog: kaligtasan
safety in Arabic: أَمْن ʔamn, أَمَان ʔamān, سَلَامَة salāma
safety in Malay: keselamatan
safety in Indonesian: keselamatan, keamanan
safety in Thai: ความปลอดภัย kwaam-bplɔ̀ɔt-pai, เซฟตี้ séep-tîi
safety in Vietnamese: an toàn, sự an toàn
safety in Myanmar: ဘေးကင်းရေး bhe:kang:re:

Examples of safety in a sentence

As the government, we have a duty to ensure public safety.
The car looks cheap, but the thing is, I have doubts about its safety.
In automotive design, safety should override lesser factors such as cosmetics and corner-cutting.

All 40 example sentences with safety

Antonyms of safety

danger

Forms of safety

Noun
plural	safeties
Verb
third-person singular present	safeties
present participle	safetying
past participle	safetied
past	safetied

Plural of safety: safeties

Origin of safety

Inherited from Middle English savete, from Old French sauveté, from earlier salvetet, from Medieval Latin salvitās, salvitātem, from Latin salvus.

Words formed from safety

Phrases with safety

88 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about safety

What does safety mean?: Safety means the condition or feeling of being safe; security; certainty.
What is safety in Hindi?: Safety in Hindi is सुरक्षा (surakṣā), सलामती (salāmtī), सेफ़्टी (sefṭī). See Safety meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is safety?: Safety can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce safety?: Safety is pronounced /ˈseɪfti/.
What is the plural of safety?: The plural of safety is safeties.

Words near safety in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: safety (page history and authors); सुरक्षा (Marathi) (page history and authors); సురక్షితము (Telugu) (page history and authors); safety (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಕ್ಷೇಮ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਸਲਾਮਤੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); સુરક્ષા (Gujarati) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-safety.ogg.

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