jeopardize
verb
Did you know?
Jeopardize Has a Controversial History
Imagine you’re a contestant on a game show, and your task is to provide a question as a response to this statement from the host: “This word was once controversial, and in 1870 a grammarian called it ‘a foolish and intolerable word,’ a view shared by many 19th-century critics.” If you answered, “What is jeopardize?,” you might be going home with some money! The preferred word back then was jeopard, which first appeared in print in the 14th century. The upstart jeopardize didn’t arrive until the late 16th century, and took a while to catch on. In 1828, Noah Webster himself declared jeopardize to be “a modern word, used by respectable writers in America, but synonymous with jeopard, and therefore useless.” Unfortunately for the champions of jeopard, increased usage of jeopardize ultimately put the former word in jeopardy. Jeopard is now only rarely heard.
Examples of jeopardize in a Sentence
Brandon Loomis, AZCentral.com, 31 Jan. 2026
Anything that would jeopardize an active federal investigation, and finally, anything that depicts or contain images of death, physical abuse or injury also not produced.
—Rachel Wolf, FOXNews.com, 30 Jan. 2026
Don’t send death threats or do anything to jeopardize somebody’s family.
—Megan McCluskey, Time, 30 Jan. 2026
Women should not feel that supporting other women jeopardizes their own advancement.
—Maia Niguel Hoskin, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for jeopardize
Cite this Entry
“Jeopardize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jeopardize. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
Copy Citation
