dangerous

English

Alternative forms

• daungerous (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Displaced native Old English frēcne.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪnd͡ʒ(ə)ɹəs/, /ˈdeɪnʒ(ə)ɹəs/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dan‧ger‧ous

Adjective

dangerous (comparative more dangerous or (nonstandard) dangerouser, superlative most dangerous or (nonstandard) dangerousest)

1. Full of danger.

   Synonyms: hazardous, perilous, risky, unsafe; see also Thesaurus:dangerous

   Antonym: safe

   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:

     [I]t 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.

   • 2025 February 7, Esha Mitra, Aishwarya S Iyer and Ross Adkin, “‘Treated like criminals’: Shackling of Indians aboard 40-hour migrant flight sparks new outrage against Trump”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Young Indians looking for work opportunities have made up a sizeable portion of undocumented migrants in the US, many after making the dangerous trek through Latin America to reach the US southern border.

2. Causing danger; ready to do harm or injury.
   • 1696, Tho[mas] Southerne, Oroonoko: A Tragedy […], London: […] H[enry] Playford […]; B[enjamin] Tooke […]; [a]nd S. Buckley […], →OCLC, act III, scene ii, page 41:

     If they incline to think you dangerous, / They have their knaviſh Arts to make you ſo.

   • 1965, Frank Herbert, Dune‎^[2] (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 49‎^[3]:

     And the Duke thought: The truth could he worse than he imagines, but even dangerous facts are valuable if you’ve been trained to deal with them. And there’s one place where nothing has been spared for my son—dealing with dangerous facts.

3. (colloquial, dated) In a condition of danger, as from illness; threatened with death.

Usage notes

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

Derived terms

• a little knowledge is a dangerous thing
• a little learning is a dangerous thing
• armed and dangerous
• dangerosity
• Dangerous Corner
• dangerous goods
• dangerousness
• nondangerous
• semidangerous
• undangerous

Related terms

• danger
• dangerously

Translations

full of danger

• Afar: um
• Afrikaans: gevaarlik
• Albanian: i rrezikshëm (sq)
• Amharic: አደገኛ (ʾädägäña)
• Arabic: خَطِر (ḵaṭir)

  Egyptian Arabic: خطير (ḵaṭīr)

• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: վտանգավոր (hy) (vtangavor)
• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܩܹܘܲܢܕܹܝܢܘܿܣܵܝܵܐ (qēwandēnōsāyā), ܩܲܢܝܼܛܵܐ (qanīṭā)
• 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 (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎦᏂᏰᎬ (ganiyegv), ᎦᎾᏰᎩ (ganayegi)
• Chichewa: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 危險 / 危险 (ngai⁴ him²)

  Hokkien: 危險 / 危险 (zh-min-nan) (gûi-hiám / hûi-hiám / ûi-hiám)

  Mandarin: 危險 / 危险 (zh) (wēixiǎn)

• Czech: nebezpečný (cs)
• 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), périlleux (fr), périculeux (fr)
• Friulian: periculôs
• Galician: perigoso (gl)
• Georgian: საშიში (sašiši), სახიფათო (saxipato)
• German: gefährlich (de)
• Greek: επικίνδυνος (el) (epikíndynos)

  Ancient: ἐπικίνδυνος (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 \ מְסֻכָּן (m'sukan)
• Hindi: ख़तरनाक (xatarnāk), जोखिमी (jokhimī)
• Hungarian: veszélyes (hu)
• Icelandic: hættulegur (is)
• Ido: danjeroza (io)
• Igbo: ịhe n'adighị mma (ig)
• Indonesian: berbahaya (id), bahaya (id)
• Ingrian: opasnoi
• Interlingua: periculose
• Irish: dáinséarach, contúirteach
• Italian: pericoloso (it)
• Japanese: 危険 (ja) (きけん, kiken), 危ない (ja) (あぶない, abunai)
• Javanese: mbebayani
• Jeju: 위염ᄒᆞ다 (wiyeomhawda)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: មានគ្រោះថ្នាក់ (miən krŭəh thnak)
• Korean: 위험하다 (ko) (wiheomhada)
• Ladino: perikolozo, peligrozo, sekanali, sekanozo, danjerozo, rizikozo
• Lao: ມີອັນຕະລາຍ (mī ʼan ta lāi)
• Latin: perīculōsus (la)
• Latvian: bīstams (lv)
• Lithuanian: pavojingas (lt)
• Luganda: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: geféierlech
• Macedonian: о́пасен (ópasen)
• Malay: berbahaya
• Maltese: perikolużi
• Maori: mōrearea
• Marathi: घातक (ghātak)
• Mirandese: peligroso
• Mongolian: аюултай (mn) (ajuultaj)
• Norman: dangéreux
• Northern Sami: váralaš
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: farlig, farefull

  Nynorsk: farefull

• Occitan: dangeirós (oc)
• Odia: please add this translation if you can
• Old English: frēcne
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: خطرناک (fa) (xatarnâk)
• Plautdietsch: roakboa
• Polish: niebezpieczny (pl), groźny (pl)
• Portuguese: perigoso (pt)
• Punjabi: 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: о̏па̄сан

  Roman: ȍpāsan (sh)

• Sicilian: dannìuru, piriculusu (scn), priculusu (scn)
• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: nebezpečný
• Slovene: nevárən (sl)
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: peligroso (es), brígido (es), fortunal (es)
• Sumerian: 𒆗 (kalag /⁠aksu, agsu⁠/)
• Swedish: farlig (sv), farligt (sv)
• Tagalog: mapanganib, delikado
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: ప్రమాదకరమైన (te) (pramādakaramaina)
• Thai: อันตราย (th) (an-dtà-raai)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: tehlikeli (tr)
• Turkmen: howply
• Ukrainian: небезпе́чний (nebezpéčnyj)
• Urdu: جوکھمی (jokhimī), خطرناک (xatarnāk)
• 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), riskeus (wa)
• Welsh: peryglus (cy)
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: געפֿערלעך (geferlekh), סכּנהדיק (sakonedik, sekonedik)
• Yoruba: léwu
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

causing danger, ready to do harm or injury

• Catalan: perillós (ca)
• Dutch: gevaarlijk (nl)
• French: dangereux (fr)
• German: gefährlich (de)
• Indonesian: membahayakan (id)
• Ingrian: opasnoi
• Italian: pericoloso (it), nocivo (it)
• Latin: periculosus (la), nocivus
• Maori: whakawhara
• Polish: groźny (pl)
• Portuguese: perigoso (pt), nocivo (pt)
• Spanish: peligroso (es), nocivo (es), brígido (es), fortunal (es)
• Swahili: na hatari (sw)

Anagrams

• nose guard, noseguard

Occitan

Adjective

dangerous m (feminine singular dangerouso, masculine plural dangerous, feminine plural dangerousos)

1. (Mistralian) Alternative form of dangeirós