Precipitous

Definition: Precipitous

Precipitous

Adjective

1. Characterized by precipices; "a precipitous bluff".

2. Extremely steep; "an abrupt canyon"; "the precipitous rapids of the upper river"; "the precipitous hills of Chinese paintings"; "a sharp drop".

Date "precipitous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Etymology: Precipitous \Pre*cip"i*tous\, adjective. [Latin expression praeceps, -cipitis: compare to Old French expression precipiteux. See Precipice.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Precipitous

Synonyms: abrupt (adj), sharp (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Instantaneity	Adjective: instantaneous, momentary, sudden, immediate, instant, abrupt, discontinuous, precipitous, precipitant, precipitate; subitaneous, hasty;quick as thought, quick as lightning, quick as a flash; rapid as electricity.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Precipitous

English words defined with "precipitous": abrupt ♦ Coulee ♦ Precipitious, precipitously ♦ Scaur, sharp, Steep-down, Steep-up, Steepy, Strid. (references)

Specialty definitions using "precipitous": Breche de Roland ♦ Michmash. (references)

Etymologies containing "precipitous": Precipitious ♦ Steep-down, Steep-up. (references)

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Precipitous lava walls of the beautiful volcanic lake, Masaya, Leon, Nicaragua, C. A. Credit: Library of Congress.		Jebel Usdum precipitous cliffs of solid rock-salt. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	The descent was there so precipitous that the English artillery did not see the farm below them at the bottom of the valley, the centre of the combat.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Business		This has resulted in large-scale retail stores and discount stores increasing their market shares, while liquor stores have experienced a precipitous decline in their share of the retail beer market. (references)
Economic History	Romania	Outside factors such as the collapse of trade with Soviet bloc trading partners, economic slowdown in the industrialized West, increases in imported energy costs, and large losses from UN sanctions against Iraq and the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, contributed to a precipitous drop in industrial output after 1989. The fact that the Danube River remains blocked from the Kosovo conflict denies Romania an important transportation route for its goods and has further hampered economic recovery. (references)
	Papua New Guinea	Estimates of minerals in exploration expenditure in 1999 were one-third of what was spent in 1997. The resulting lower foreign exchange earnings, capital flight, and general government mismanagement resulted in a precipitous drop in the value of Papua New Guinea's currency, the kina, leading to a dangerous decrease in foreign currency reserves. (references)
	Haiti	The precipitous decline in urban assembly sector jobs, from a high of 80,000 in 1986 to fewer than 17,000 in 1994, exacerbated the scarcity of jobs. (references)
Women	Djibouti	In 1997 some health workers reported a precipitous drop in the number of hospitalizations related to FGM in Djibouti City. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Jimmy Carter	1977-1981	Concerning developments in and around Poland the allies have achieved the highest level of cohesion and unity of purpose in making clear the effects on future East-West relations of a precipitous Soviet act there.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Precipitous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Precipitous" is used about 96 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	96	33,456

Expression using "precipitous": precipitous steep. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "precipitous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i thiktë (bluff, steep), i rrëpirët (bluff, hilly, rapid, sharp, steep), i rrëmbyer (brusque, fractious, heady, hot-headed, impetuous, impulsive, precipitate, rapt, short tempered, tempestuous). (various references)

Arabic		‏فظ (abrupt, blunt, boor, boorish, brusque, brutish, burly, chuffy, churlish, clownish, coarse, country, crude, crusty, curt, discourteous, earthy, grievous, gross, gruff, hairy, harsh, hoarse, ill mannered, impolite, indelicate, low, mannerless, obdurate, off hand, plug ugly, rough, rough and ready, rude, ruffianly, rugged, rustic, savage, scathe, serious, shaggy, short, sour, surly, uncivil, uncouth, unkind, unmannerly, unprintable), ‏متهور (audacious, blind, blindfold, blindfolded, brash, careless, daredevil, daredevilry, desperate, devil may care, excessive, extravagant, foolhardy, harum scarum, hasty, headlong, heady, heedless, hot-headed, immaterial, impetuous, impish, imprudent, impulsive, inconsiderate, light-headed, madcap, precipitate, rash, reckless, slapdash, temerarious, too hasty, unrestrained, unwary), ‏متحدر, ‏وعر (broken, bumpy, hairy, impassable, irregular, jolty, lumpy, malaise, mountainous, ragged, rough, rugged, sharp, steep, tight), ‏عسير (complicated, difficult, hard, intractable, knotty, malaise, severe, strait, strenuous, stubborn, terrible, troublesome, uphill), ‏صياغة رديئة, ‏أسلوب متنافر, ‏شديد التحدر (bluff, bold, heavy, hilly). (various references)

Chinese		险峻 (ruggedness, steepness), 巃 (steep), 嶮 (rugged), �' (lofty), 嶡 (mountainous, sacrificial vessel), �" (high mountain). (various references)

Czech		překotný (helter-skelter), ukvapený (hasty, impetuous, precipitate, premature, rash, sudden, unadvised), srázný (headlong, steep), náhlý (abrupt, acute, rude, sudden, surprise). (various references)

Farsi		ازروی عجله (Sketchy), شتابناک , بی مهابا. (various references)

Finnish		jyrkkä (abrupt, radical, sharp, steep, strict), äkkisyvä (steep), äkkirynnäkkö (steep), äkkijyrkkä (abrupt, steep). (various references)

French		irréfléchi (precipitate), escarpé, abrupt. (various references)

German		abschüssig (abrupt, scarped, sloping, steep). (various references)

Greek		κρημνώδησ (cragged, craggy, steep), απόκρημνοσ (abrupt, craggy, steep). (various references)

Hebrew		תלול (high, lofty, sharp, sheer, sloping, steep), פזיז (careless, fickle, harebrained, hasty, headlong, impetuous, impulsive, nimble, rash, slapdash, slaphappy). (various references)

Hungarian		meredek (acclivous, arduous, be steeped, bluff, bluffy, close call, hairy, headlong, high-pitched, prone, steep, sticky), hirtelen esésű. (various references)

Italian		precipitoso (beforehand, hasty, headlong, hurried, precipitant, precipitate, rash), ripido (abrupt, bluff, gruff, sharp, steep). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		急激 (radical, sudden), 峻険 (steep), 峻嶮 (steep), 切り立った (steep). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		きりたった (steep), きゅう�'き (classical drama, radical, sudden), しゅ�"け�" (excellent wisdom, steep). (various references)

Korean		가파른 (steep). (various references)

Manx		kiontoyrtagh (headlong, precipitant, precipitate). (various references)

Pig Latin		ecipitouspray

Portuguese		escarpado (abrupt, acclivitous, bluff, craggy, declivitous, go-ahead, headlong, rugged, steep), íngreme (abrupt, acclivitous, bold, craggy, steep, venturous). (various references)

Romanian		prãpãstios (abrupt, fearful, steep), râpos (abrupt, arduous, steep), abrupt (abrupt, abruptly, arduous, bluffy, bold, craggy, desultory, disjointed, harsh, perpendicular, precipitate, rapid, sharp, steep). (various references)

Russian		крутой (abrupt, arduous, craggy, hard boiled, precipitatous, rapid, sharp, steep), обрывистый (abrupt). (various references)

Scottish		corrach (abrupt). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		preran (anticipatory, immature, premature). (various references)

Spanish		precipitoso (steep), precipitado (abrupt, breakneck, cursory, hasty, headlong, precipitant, precipitate, precipitation, rash), escarpado (abrupt, arduous, bluff, bold, sheer, steep). (various references)

Swedish		brant (abrupt, arduous, edge, escarpment, precipice, scarp, sharp, sheer, steep, steeply, uphill, verge). (various references)

Turkish		uçurum gibi, sarp (abrupt, arduous, bluff, craggy, jagged, rapid, rugged, scarped, steep, stiff), hızlı (crash, expeditious, express, fast, fastmoving, fleet, frequent, hasty, high speed, impetuous, light footed, nippy, presto, quick, quick-action, rakish, rapid, ready, snappy, speed, speedy, swift, winged, zippy), dik (abrupt, arduous, bluff, bold, erect, horny, jagged, perpendicular, rapid, right, rough, scarped, sheer, Square, stand up, steep, stiff, straight, up, upright, uprightly, upstanding, vertical), aceleci (brash, hasty, headfirst, headforemost, headlong, hustler, impatient, impetuous, precipitant, precipitate, rash, slippy), çabuk (apace, be quick, come, come on, early, expeditious, fast, hasty, hurry, hurry up, in double time, in good time, light footed, lissom, lissome, nimble, presto, prompt, pronto, quick, quick-action, quickly, rapid, ready, sharp, snappy, soon, speedy, swift, swiftly). (various references)

Ukrainian		обривистий, нестримний (abandoned, effusive, elemental, runaway, side-splitting, splitting), прямовисний (direct, mural, perpendicular, prone, sheer, upright, vertical), поспішний (hasteful, hasty, hurried, ill-judged, precipitate, premature, pressing, previous, snap). (various references)

Vietnamese		như vách đứng; dốc đứng. (various references)

Welsh		serth (abrupt, obscene, steep), clogwynog (craggy). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	praeceps, praecipitarum, praecipiti, praecisa, praecisam, praecisi, praecisum. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "precipitous": precipitously, precipitousness, precipitousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Precipitous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: percipitous, precipites, precipitias, preciptious, preciptous, prescipitous, presipitous. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "precipitous" (pronounced prusi"putus)
6	-i" p u t u s	serendipitous.
5	-p u t u s	impetus.
4	-u t u s	calamitous, circuitous, duplicitous, emeritus, felicitous, fortuitous, gratuitous, gravitas, prophetess, riotous, solicitous, ubiquitous.
3	-t u s	apparatus, apprentice, armistice, arthritis, asbestos, berettas, bronchitis, cactus, countess, detritus, encephalitis, eucalyptus, fetus, gastritis, glottis, gratis, hepatitis, hiatus, hostess, injustice, justice, laryngitis, lattice, lettuce, Lotus, malpractice, margaritas, mastoiditis, meningitis, momentous, notice, osteoarthritis, portentous, poultice, priestess, prospectus, robustas, situs, status, Stratus, tortoise, treatise.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-e-i-i-o-p-p-r-s-t-u"
	-2 letters: croupiest, outprices.
	-3 letters: citreous, croppies, cuppiest, cuprites, outcries, outprice, periotic, picrites, pictures, piecrust, precious, priciest, prospect, puristic, purities, roupiest, supercop.
	-4 letters: citrous, copiers, coppers, copters, couters, croppie, croupes, cuppers, cuppier, cuprite, curites, eristic, erotics, icterus, peptics, petrous, piceous, picrite, picture, pipiest, piteous, pitiers, poetics, posture, potpies, pouters, poutier, precoup, precuts, prosect, prostie, proteus.
	Words containing the letters "c-e-i-i-o-p-p-r-s-t-u"
	+2 letters: precipitously.
	+3 letters: superpatriotic, superscription.
	+4 letters: precipitousness, prepublications, superscriptions, unappreciations.
	+5 letters: supercompetitive.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.