precarious

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
14
Words With Friends
17
Letters
10
Pronunciation
/pɹɪˈkɛəɹi.əs/

Definition of precarious

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  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.”
    “Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious.”
    “The existence of Jewish partisans was precarious. They lived from hand to mouth, stealing when necessary, arranging secret deliveries of food, and spending hours and even days in holes in the ground when danger threatened.”
    “One can't escape the huge nuclear facility at Sellafield (supplier of much of the line's remaining freight traffic), or miss the wild shingle beaches with exposed and precarious bungalows sandwiched between the railway and the shore at Braystones.”
See all 3 definitions

adj

  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.”
    “Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious.”
    “The existence of Jewish partisans was precarious. They lived from hand to mouth, stealing when necessary, arranging secret deliveries of food, and spending hours and even days in holes in the ground when danger threatened.”
    “One can't escape the huge nuclear facility at Sellafield (supplier of much of the line's remaining freight traffic), or miss the wild shingle beaches with exposed and precarious bungalows sandwiched between the railway and the shore at Braystones.”
  2. Depending on the intention of another.
  3. (not-comparable)Relating to incipient caries.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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

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9-letter words

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6-letter words

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