adjective
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involving great risk
-
depending on chance
Other Word Forms
- hazardously adverb
- hazardousness noun
- nonhazardous adjective
- nonhazardously adverb
- nonhazardousness noun
- ultrahazardous adjective
- unhazardous adjective
- unhazardously adverb
Etymology
Origin of hazardous
Explanation
The noun "hazard" means something dangerous, and the adjective hazardous refers to anything that involves danger. A golf course with lots of sand traps is especially hazardous for golfers. That's why those traps are called hazards. If your car blows a tire in the middle of the night, make sure to turn on your hazard lights. Being invisible to other drivers is hazardous to everyone, especially yourself. Life is, by definition, hazardous. It's full of dangers, both obvious and otherwise. Acknowledge that fact and keep going anyway. If you spend all your time focusing on what's hazardous, you end up missing all the wonderful things in life.
Vocabulary lists containing hazardous
"The Banana Tree," Vocabulary from the short story
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Divergent
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List 7
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Teams including the county’s bomb-sniffing-dog unit investigated and found no explosive devices or hazardous materials in the area, police said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026
"Rivers that are normally completely frozen have overflowed where they hadn't historically," he told the BBC, causing layered, unstable ice sheets that are hazardous to travel over in winter months.
From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026
The memoir of a former New York City subway motorman details his hazardous workdays below the streets.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
As of Wednesday morning, Chiang Mai's PM2.5 level, which refers to the concentration of tiny, hazardous particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres, was classified as "very unhealthy".
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
“But wait, the terrain looks particularly hazardous, don’t you think?”
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
