dangerous

English

Etymology

From Middle English dangerous (“difficult, severe, domineering, arrogant, fraught with danger”), daungerous, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French dangereus (“threatening, difficult”), from dangier. Equivalent to danger +‎ -ous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪnʒ(ə)ɹəs/, /ˈdeɪnd͡ʒ(ə)ɹəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪnd͡ʒəɹəs/, /ˈdeɪnd͡ʒɚəs/, /ˈdeɪnd͡ʒɚs/, /ˈdeɪnʒɹəs/

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: dan‧ger‧ous

Adjective

dangerous (comparative more dangerous, superlative most dangerous)

1. Full of danger.

   Railway crossings without gates are highly dangerous.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0029:

     “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

2. Causing danger; ready to do harm or injury.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     If they incline to think you dangerous / To less than gods

3. (colloquial, dated) In a condition of danger, as from illness; threatened with death.
4. (obsolete) Hard to suit; difficult to please.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Geoffrey Chaucer

     My wages ben full strait, and eke full small; / My lord to me is hard and dangerous.

5. (obsolete) Reserved; not affable.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Geoffrey Chaucer

     Of his speech dangerous

Usage notes

The standard comparative and superlative are more dangerous and most dangerous; the forms dangerouser and dangerousest exist but are nonstandard.

Synonyms

(full of danger):

• hazardous
• perilous
• risky
• unsafe
• See also Thesaurus:dangerous

Antonyms

• (full of danger): safe, harmless

Related terms

• danger
• dangerously

Translations

full of danger

• Afar: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: gevaarlik
• Albanian: i rrezikshëm
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: خَطِر‎‎ (ḵaṭir)

  Egyptian Arabic: خطير‎‎ m (xaṭir)

• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: վտանգավոր (hy) (vtangavor)
• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: peligrosu
• Aymara: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: təhlükəli
• Basque: arriskutsu
• Belarusian: небяспе́чны (njebjaspjéčny)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: dañjerus (br)
• Bulgarian: опа́сен (bg) (opásen), риско́ван (bg) (riskóvan)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: perillós
• Cherokee: ᎦᏂᏰᎬ (ganiyegv)
• Chichewa: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 危險 (zh), 危险 (zh) (wēixiǎn)

• Czech: nebezpečný (cs) m
• Danish: farlig (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: gevaarlijk (nl), gevaarlijke (nl)
• Elfdalian: farlin
• Esperanto: danĝera
• Estonian: ohtlik (et)
• Ewe: please add this translation if you can
• Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: vandamikil, hættisligur
• Finnish: vaarallinen (fi)
• French: dangereux (fr) m, dangereuse (fr) f
• Friulian: periculôs
• Galician: perigoso
• Georgian: საშიში (sašiši), სახიფათო (saxipato)
• German: gefährlich (de)
• Greek: επικίνδυνος (el) (epikíndynos)

  Ancient Greek: ἐπικίνδυνος m (epikíndunos)

• Greenlandic: navianartoq, ulorianartoq
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Haitian Creole: danjere
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: makaʻuloa, weliweli ʻia
• Hebrew: מסוכן‎‎ m (mesukan), מסוכנת‎‎ f (mesukenet)
• Hindi: ख़तरनाक f (xataranāk), जोखिमी (jōkhimī)
• Hungarian: veszélyes (hu)
• Icelandic: hættulegur (is)
• Ido: danjeroza (io)
• Igbo: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: berbahaya (id)
• Interlingua: periculose
• Interlingue: dangerosi
• Irish: dáinséarach, contúirteach
• Italian: pericoloso (it) m, pericolosa (it) f
• Japanese: 危険 (ja) (きけん, kiken), 危ない (ja) (あぶない, abunai)
• Javanese: mbebayani
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: មានគ្រោះថ្នាក់ (mīən krūəh tnək)
• Korean: 위험 (ko) (wiheom)
• Ladino: perikolozo

• Lao: ມີອັນຕະລາຍ (mī ’an ta lāi)
• Latin: perīculōsus (la)
• Latvian: bīstams
• Lithuanian: pavojingas (lt) m, pavojinga f
• Luganda: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: geféierlech
• Macedonian: опасен (opasen)
• Malay: berbahaya
• Maltese: perikolużi m
• Maori: mōrearea
• Marathi: घातक (ghātak)
• Mirandese: peligroso
• Mongolian: аюултай (mn) (ajuultaj)
• Norman: dangéreux
• Northern Sami: váralaš
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: farlig, farefull

  Nynorsk: farefull

• Novial: please add this translation if you can
• Old English: cwildbære, bealu, bealo, frecendlic, frecenful, frecne, pleolic, plihtlic, fræ, cenful, cne, frecenlic
• Oriya: please add this translation if you can
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: پرخطر‎‎ (fa), خطرناک‎‎ (fa) (xatarnâk)
• Polish: niebezpieczny (pl), groźny (pl) m
• Portuguese: perigoso (pt)
• Punjabi: please add this translation if you can
• Rajasthani: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: periculos (ro)
• Romansch: privlus (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader), prigulus (Sursilvan), prievlus (Sutsilvan, Puter), privlous (Surmiran)
• Russian: опа́сный (ru) (opásnyj), риско́ванный (ru) (riskóvannyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: опасан

  Roman: opasan (sh)

• Sicilian: piriculusu (scn), priculusu (scn)
• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: nebezpečný
• Slovene: nevaren (sl)
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: peligroso (es)
• Sumerian: [script needed] (aksu)
• Swedish: farlig (sv), farligt (sv)
• Tagalog: mapanganib, delikado
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: ప్రమాదకరమైన (te) (pramādakaramaina)
• Thai: วิกฤต (th) (wí-grìt), อันตราย (th) (an-dtà-raai)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: tehlikeli (tr)
• Turkmen: howply
• Ukrainian: небезпе́чний (nebezpéčnyj)
• Urdu: جوکھمی‎‎ (jōkhimī), خطرناک‎‎ (xataranāk)
• Uyghur: خەتەرلىك‎‎ (xeterlik)
• Uzbek: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: nguy hiểm (vi)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: dandjreus (wa) m, dandjreuse f, riskeus (wa) m, riskeuse f
• Welsh: peryglus (cy)
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: געפערלעך‎‎ (geferlik)
• Yoruba: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

causing danger, ready to do harm or injury

• Dutch: gevaarlijk (nl)
• French: dangereux (fr)
• German: gefährlich (de)
• Indonesian: membahayakan (id)

• Maori: whakawhara
• Polish: groźny (pl) m
• Swahili: na hatari (sw)

Anagrams

• nose guard, noseguard