Precarious

Definition: Precarious

Precarious

Adjective

1. Affording no ease or reassurance; "a precarious truce".

2. Fraught with danger; "dangerous waters"; "a parlous journey on stormy seas"; "a perilous voyage across the Atlantic in a small boat"; "the precarious life of an undersea diver"; "dangerous surgery followed by a touch-and-go recovery".

3. Dangerously insecure; "a precarious footing on the ladder".

4. Not secure; beset with difficulties; "a shaky marriage".

Date "precarious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references)

Etymology: Precarious \Pre*ca"ri*ous\, adjective. [Latin expression precarius obtained by begging or prayer, depending on request or on the will of another, from precari to pray, beg. See Pray.]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definition
Literature	Precarious is what depends on our prayers or requests. A precarious tenure is one that depends solely on the will of the owner to concede to our prayer; hence uncertain, not to be depended on. (Latin, precor.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Precarious

Synonyms: parlous (adj), perilous (adj), shaky (adj), touch-and-go (adj), unstable (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Danger	At stake, in question; precarious, critical, ticklish; slippery, slippy; hanging by a thread; Verb: with a halter round one's neck; between the hammer and the anvil, between Scylla and Charybdis, between a rock and a hard place, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between two fires; on the edge of a precipice, on the brink of a precipice, on the verge of a precipice, on the edge of a volcano; in the lion's den, on slippery ground, under fire; not out of the wood.
Transientness	Temporal, temporary; provisional, provisory; deciduous; perishable, mortal, precarious, unstable, insecure; impermanent.
Uncertainty	Fallible, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable; unreliable, untrustworthy.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Precarious

English words defined with "precarious": eke out ♦ parlous, perilous, precariously ♦ squeeze out ♦ touch-and-go ♦ unstable. (references)

Specialty definitions using "precarious": administration ad colligenda bona, administration ad colligenda bona defuncti, administration ad colligendum, administration ad colligendum bona defuncti ♦ Called, Chickens ♦ Hang by a Thread ♦ Jar ♦ precarious boulder ♦ Sabbath ♦ Walls. (references)

Etymologies containing "precarious": Comprecation. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Sometimes adrenaline gives people the shakes, some might think it's precarious, so maybe you'd want to pray about it. (Heist; writing credit: David Mamet)
Movie/TV Titles	A Precarious Position (1898)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Precarious Jobs in Labour Market Regulation: The Growth of Atypical Employment in Western Europe (reference) Judicial Activism: Bulwark of Freedom or Precarious Security (reference) Precarious Dependencies (reference) Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales (Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 3) (reference) Mercury Retrograde: Your Survival Guide to Astrology's Most Precarious Time of the Year! (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	"A precarious position" - using trucks on a primary triangulation party Triangulation party of E. W. Eickelberg. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.		Flood debris in yard of resettlement client. The wheelbarrow floated to its precarious position on the roof. Hatfield, Massachusetts. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Author	Quotation
Charles Caleb Colton	Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Author	Date	Quotation
Communist Manifesto	1848	The unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes. (reference)
Winston S. Churchill	1946	If the population of the English-speaking Commonwealths be added to that of the United States with all that such co-operation implies in the air, on the sea, all over the globe and in science and in industry, and in moral force, there will be no quivering, precarious balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or adventure. ("Iron Curtain" Speech)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Business		Because of their precarious financial situation, Polish defense firms have shown little interest in importing foreign equipment. (references)
		In another recent study, it was found that between 25-30 percent of the population or around 7.5 million Argentines have arterial hypertension and that a surprising 6.5 million haven't a clue as to their precarious situation. (references)
Children	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Public institutions for persons with disabilities generally met minimum standards, although most are in precarious financial situation. (references)
	Bolivia	The Government is aware of the precarious situation of children and the need to provide legal and institutional infrastructure for their protection. (references)
Civil Liberties	Russia	Their situation remained precarious because the formerly state-owned hotels in which many reside were being privatized; a number of eviction orders were served in such cases during the year. (references)
Economic History	Yemen	Yemen's budget situation will remain precarious, however, due to its high reliance (70%) on oil export revenues. (references)
	Bolivia	The portfolio of loans in arrears increased significantly from around 6.5% of the total in December 1999 to over 11.57% at the end of 2000. Throughout the year, private agriculture and industrial entrepreneurs have been requesting that the administration ease banking regulations and reschedule delinquent loans as a result of the precarious social and economic situation. (references)
	Cuba (09/01)	Cuba's precarious economic position is complicated by the high price it must pay for foreign financing. (references)
Minorities	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Most of the country's 40-60,000 Roma (a rough estimate - no reliable figures exist) live a precarious existence. (references)
Political Economy	Israel	The precarious nature of coalition politics makes the government vulnerable to challenge. (references)
	Nicaragua	The country continued to have a precarious balance of payments position and remained heavily dependent on foreign assistance and remittances from citizens living abroad. (references)
Worker Rights	Brazil	The ILO reports that the fragility of children and their lesser-developed ability to recognize risks in the workplace place them in a particularly precarious position. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	SABBATH, n. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh. Among the Jews observance of the day was enforced by a Commandment of which this is the Christian version: "Remember the seventh day to make thy neighbor keep it wholly." To the Creator it seemed fit and expedient that the Sabbath should be the last day of the week, but the Early Fathers of the Church held other views. So great is the sanctity of the day that even where the Lord holds a doubtful and precarious jurisdiction over those who go down to (and down into) the sea it is reverently recognized, as is manifest in the following deep-water version of the Fourth Commandment: Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, And on the seventh holystone the deck and scrape the cable. Decks are no longer holystoned, but the cable still supplies the captain with opportunity to attest a pious respect for the divine ordinance.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
George Washington	1789-1797	Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.
John F. Kennedy	1961-1963	A settlement, though still precarious, has been reached in Laos.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Precarious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.72% of the time. "Precarious" is used about 351 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)	99.72%	350	15,269
Noun (proper)	0.28%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	351	N/A

Expressions using "precarious": precarious equiliorium ♦ precarious situation ♦ precarious state of health ♦ precarious statement. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "precarious": ever-precarious.
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 "precarious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		me rrezik (adventurous, badly, chancy, perilous, speculative, Venturous), i pasigurt (chancy, crazy, Dickey, dicky, disputable, doubtful, dubious, faithless, fly-by-night, incalculable, insecure, questionable, touch and go, tricksy, trustless, truthless, unassured, uncertain, unclear, unreliable, unsafe, unsteady, unsure, untrustworthy), i pabazuar (baseless, unfounded), i dyshimtë (dingy, dodgy, doubtful, dubious, equivocal, fishy, left handed, misgiving, moot, problematic, queer, suspect, suspicious, unassured, uncertain, unreliable, wildcat). (various references)

Arabic		‏متزعزع (insecure, rickety, shaky, slippery, unstable, unsteady, wonky), ‏وقتي (passing, temporary, transient), ‏حيازة موقتة, ‏غير ثابت (movable, problematic, rocky, tenuous, unsound), ‏عارض (adventitious, disagree, discountenance, dissent, exhibitor, join issue with, mind, negative, nix, not to hold with, object, oppose, part company, protest, take issue wit), ‏عابر (ephemeral, fleeting, in transit, parlous, passing, sneak, stealthy, tenuous, transient, transitory). (various references)

Bulgarian		съмнителен (alleged, ambiguous, amphibious, dingy, disputable, doubtful, dubious, equivocal, fishy, fly-by-night, hedge, hole-and-corner, indeterminate, moot, off beat, phoney, problematic, queer, questionable, screwy, seedy, shady, shaky, suspect, suspicious, uncertain, unsure, vague), случаен (accidental, adventitious, adventive, arbitrary, by, casual, chance, facultative, fortuitous, haphazard, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, idle, incidental, long, lucky, occasional, odd, pickup, promiscuous, random, sporadic, stray, unplanned, unsystematic), рискован (adventurous, chanceful, chancy, hazardous, insecure, parlous, perilous, queasy, risky, speculative, sporting, touch and go, unsound, venturesome), опасен (adventurous, awkward, breakneck, dangerous, hazardous, hot, insecure, lively, parlous, perilous, pestiferous, redoubtable, risky, rocky, rum, rummy, slippery, slippy, trappy, ugly, unchancy, unsafe, unsure, virulent, volatile, warm), несигурен (build on sand, chancy, dangerous, disputable, dubious, equivocal, faltering, halting, insecure, irresolute, long, pendulous, problematic, queasy, risky, rocky, shaky, slippy, suspensive, tentative, top heavy, tottery, treacherous, uncertain, uneasy, unreliable, unresolved, unsafe, unsettled, unsound, unsteady, unsure, untrustworthy, variable, versatile, wonky), необоснован (baseless, causeless, idle, ill founded, invalid, slender, unbacked, unfounded, unsound), пълен с опасности. (various references)

Chinese		飘摇. (various references)

Czech		riskantní (adventurous, chancy, dangerous, Dicey, Dickey, dodgy, hazardous, risky, touch and go, unsound), nejistý (afloat, chancy, cloudy, doubtful, dubious, faltering, fluid, halting, insecure, jumpy, shaky, suspensive, tenuous, uncertain, undecided, uneasy, uneven, unsafe, unsettled, unsound, unsure), apriorní. (various references)

Dutch		transactie die kan worden aangetast voorzover de wederpartij op de hoogte was van de moeilijke situatie waarin de schuldenaar zich bevond (transaction which can be challenged only in as far as the other contracting party was aware of the precarious situation of the debtor). (various references)

Farsi		پرمخاطره (Risky, Venturesome), مصر (Demanding, Insistent, Shrill, Stickler, Strenuous), مشکوک (Doubtful, Dubious, Esoteric, Questionable, Shady, Skeptic, Suspicious, Uncertain), مشروطبشرایطمعینی , عاریه ای بسته بمیل دیگری , التماس کن . (various references)

Finnish		arveluttava (doubtful, risky, suspicious), arveluttaa (doubtful, risky, suspicious). (various references)

French		précaire (precariously). (various references)

German		unsicher (chancy, dangerous, doubtful, dubious, halting, haltingly, hazardous, insecure, insecurely, instable, jumpy, precariously, shaky, uncertain, uncertainly, uneasily, uneasy, uneven, unsafe, unsafely, unsettled, unsound, unstable, unstably, unsteady, unsure, wild). (various references)

Greek		ακροσφαλήσ (top heavy), αβέβαιοσ (equivocal, touch and go, uncertain, unsure, vague). (various references)

Hebrew		מסוכן (dangerous, fell, hazardous, mean, perilous, risky, unhealthy, unsafe), לא בטוח (insecure, touch and go, uncertain), רופף (flimsy, ramshackle, rickety, shaky, unstable, wonky). (various references)

Hungarian		kétes (dicey, dingy, doubtful, dubious, equivocal, fishy, louche, obscure, queer, questionable, shady, unassured), ingatag (fickle, flighty, fugacious, labile, mercurial, mutable, sandy, shaky, shilly-shally), engedélytől függő, bizonytalan (choppy, cranky, dicey, dim, dubious, elusive, equivocal, faint, faltering, fickle, have cold feet, hazy, hesitating, indefinite, indeterminate, insecure, irresolute, nondescript, obscure, pennky, questionable, sandy, scratchy, shaky, speculative, suspensive, to be in the air, to hang in the air, to hang in the balance, transcendental, uncertain, unsettled, unsteady, unsure, vague, woozy). (various references)

Indonesian		sulit (ardous, convolute, uphill), menggawatkan (dangerous, endanger, render critical), genting (critical, frayed, narrow, tense). (various references)

Italian		precario. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		浮き草 (a floating weed, duckweed). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		うきくさ (a floating weed, duckweed). (various references)

Manx		neuhickyr (apocryphal, chancy, debatable, fluky, indefinite, infirm, insecure, loose, uncertain), missilagh (fickle, uncertain). (various references)

Pig Latin		ecariouspray

Portuguese		precário, perigoso (adventure, adventurous, breakneck, chanceful, critical, dangerous, harmful, hazardous, hot, insecure, parlous, perilous, risky, touch and go, touch-and-go, ugly, unchancy, unsafe, venturesome), incerto (borderline, chancy, double-minded, doubtful, doubting, dubious, fitful, floating, hazardous, incalculable, inconstant, insecure, kittle, lubricous, problematic, questionable, risky, shaky, shifting, slippery, slippy, tottery, touch and go, touch-and-go, unassured, uncertain, undecided, unreliable, unsettled, unstable, unsure), arriscado (audacious, breakneck, chanceful, dangerous, daring, hazardous, intrepid, perilous, risky, scabrous, speculative, touch-and-go, ugly, unsafe, venturesome). (various references)

Romanian		precar (hard), riscat (parlous, risky, venturesome, wildcat), greu (annoying, arduous, awkward, burden, burdensome, busy, clumsy, dangerously, difficult, difficulty, fatiguing, gravely, grievous, hard, hardly, heavily, heavy, inconvenient, labored, laborious, laboured, leaden, lot, massive, massy, near, onerous, oppressive, painful, parlous, punitive, reluctantly, scarcely, seriously, severe, solid, stiff, stodgy, stolid, strenuous, stuffy, ticklish, toilful, tough, troublesome, trying, uneasy, uphill, wearisome, weary, weight, weighty), accidental (accidental, accidentally, adventitious, arbitrary, broken, casual, casually, chance, contingent, fortuitous, fortuitously, hurt, incidental, occasional, random, stray). (various references)

Russian		опасный (breakneck, chanceful, dangerous, dicey, endangering, grave, hazardous, heroic, hot, nasty, parlous, perilous, risky, trappy, unsafe, virulent), необоснованный (baseless, causeless, ill founded, ill-founded, invalid, offset, unfounded, ungrounded, Unsubstantiated). (various references)

Scottish		cugullach. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		nesiguran (dickey, dicky, diffident, dotty, doubtful, faltering, insecure, shaky, uncertain, uneasy, unsafe, unsound, unsure, waggly, wildcat, wonky), nepouzdan (dicky, equivocal, sandy, trustless, unassured, uncertain, unreliable, unsafe, unsteady, untrustworthy). (various references)

Spanish		precario (precariously). (various references)

Swedish		vansklig (difficult, hazardous, Kittle, risky), osäker (doubtful, fluid, iffy, insecure, shaky, touch and go, uncertain, unsafe, unsettled, unsure, vague), betänklig (dangerous, doubtful, dubious, grave, questionable). (various references)

Turkish		tutarsız (abrupt, as thin as a wafer, choppy, conflicting, contradictious, contradictory, desultory, disconnected, discursive, disjointed, double-minded, incoherent, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, rambling, unconnected, wafer-thin, wayward), riskli (adventurous, chancy, dangerous, Dicey, dodgy, forbidding, hairy, hazardous, not healthy, risky, touch and go, unsure, venturesome, wildcat), kararsız (ambivalent, astatic, baffling, changeable, changeful, double-minded, doubtful, dubious, erratic, faltering, fickle, flighty, fluctuating, flukey, fluky, fluxional, halting, hazy, hesitant, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, infirm, infirm of purpose, irresolute, restless, shilly shally, uncertain, uncommitted, undecided, undetermined, unresolved, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, vacillating, vagabond, vague, wayward, weak-kneed), istikrarsız (changeable, changeful, choppy, desultory, fluid, undecided, unequal, unstable, unsteady), güvenilmez (beyond belief, discredited, elusive, elusory, faithless, insecure, irresponsible, shifty, slippery, suspicious, treacherous, uncertain, unfaithful, unreliable, unsound, unstable, unsteady, untrustable, untrustworthy, whacky), belirsiz (ambiguous, backhanded, clouded, cloudy, cloudyly, dubious, dusty, equivocal, foggy, fuzzy, hazy, in the balance, indefinable, indefinite, indescribable, indeterminate, indistinct, inglorious, lax, misty, obscure, off color, off colour, shadowy, uncertain, unclear, undefined, undetermined, unsettled, vague), şüpheli (chancy, contestable, creaky, debatable, discredited, disputable, dodgy, doubtful, dubious, dubitative, equivocal, fishy, funny, funny peculiar, hazardous, indecisive, indefinable, murky, nebulous, problematic, problematical, sceptical, screwy, shadowy, shady, shaky, skeptical, speculative, suspect, suspenseful, suspicious, umbrageous, uncertain, unconvincing). (various references)

Ukrainian		сумнівний (apocryphal, doubtful, dubious, equivocal, indeterminate, naughty, off color, off colour, problematic, problematical, queer, risky, shady, uncertain), ризикований (adventurous, chanceful, chancy, critical, hazardous, naughty, off color, off colour, perilous, risky, risque, touch and go, touchy, venturesome, wildcat), необгрунтований (baseless, causeless, groundless, ill founded, invalid, undefended, unfounded, ungrounded, unwarranted), ненадійний (chancy, faithless, fallible, incalculable, insecure, questionable, ramshackle, shifty, tickle, treacherous, trustless, truthless, unassured, unreliable, unsafe, unsure, untrustworthy, wacky, whacky). (various references)

Vietnamese		tạm thời (deciduous, momentary, momently, provisional, temporary, transitory), nhất thời (impermanent, momentary, momently, temporary, transient, transitory, unabiding), mong manh; hiểm nghèo, liều (devil-may-care, hazardous, rash, risky, venture, venturesome, wildcat), không ổn định không chắc chắn, gieo neo không dựa trên cơ sở chắc chắn, coi bừa l� đúng, bấp bênh (aleatory, insecure). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	precarius. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "precarious": precariously, precariousness, precariousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Precarious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pecuarius, percarious, pracarious, precariae, precariaus, precario, precarios, precariouse, precarius, precaroius, precarous, precatious, precativus, precisious, precotious, precrious, pregarious, procarious, recarious. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "precarious" (pronounced prēke"rēus)
6	-k e" r ē u s	vicarious.
5	-e" r ē u s	gregarious, hilarious, nefarious, various.
4	-r ē u s	curious, deleterious, delirious, denarius, furious, glorious, illustrious, imperious, industrious, inglorious, injurious, laborious, lugubrious, meritorious, mysterious, notorious, pancreas, penurious, Sartorius, serious, spurious, victorious, vitreous.
3	-ē u s	acrimonious, alias, amphibious, aqueous, bilious, coleus, commodious, contemporaneous, copious, courteous, devious, dubious, envious, erroneous, extraneous, fastidious, felonious, gaseous, harmonious, hideous, homogeneous, igneous, ignominious, impervious, insidious, instantaneous, invidious, lascivious, luxurious, melodious, miscellaneous, nucleus, oblivious, obsequious, obvious, odious, percutaneous, previous, punctilious, radius, sanctimonious, simultaneous, spontaneous, studious, supercilious, tedious, unceremonious.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-i-o-p-r-r-s-u"
	-1 letter: croupiers.
	-2 letters: carouser, couriers, croupier, perisarc, precious, procures, sprucier, supercar, superior, upraiser.
	-3 letters: acerous, apercus, arouser, aspirer, auspice, carious, carouse, carpers, carries, cirrose, cirrous, coarser, copiers, corries, corsair, courier, courser, crisper, crosier, croupes, cruiser, curares, curaris, curiosa, curries, orrices, ouraris, parries, parures, picaros, piceous, pourers, praiser, pricers, procure, prosaic, prosier, pursier, rapiers, raspier.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-e-i-o-p-r-r-s-u"
	+2 letters: archesporium, precariously, superorganic.
	+3 letters: prosecutorial, recuperations, superromantic.
	+4 letters: picornaviruses, precariousness, superpatriotic, ultraprecision.
	+5 letters: mercaptopurines, neuropsychiatry, ultramicroscope, ultraprecisions.
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.