dangerous

• daungerous (obsolete)

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.

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

• Audio (UK):

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

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: dan‧ger‧ous

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.

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

• danger
• dangerously

• nose guard, noseguard

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

1. (Mistralian) alternative form of dangeirós