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
Jason Kane, NBC news, 6 May 2026
The error caused her credit score to plunge roughly 85 points and jeopardized her plans to move with her disabled father into a more accessible home.
—Joel Jacobs, ProPublica, 4 May 2026
The food emergency is being driven by violence from armed groups, political unrest and an economic crisis, the agency says, and rising fuel prices are jeopardizing what little progress the country has made in tackling the problem.
—Anabella González, CNN Money, 2 May 2026
Where Old-School Seafood Meets New Flavor What’s long worked is still working, but Cedar Key isn’t stuck in time; a handful of newer spots are adding creative flair to the mix without jeopardizing the island’s down-home identity.
—Skye Sherman, Southern Living, 1 May 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 13 May. 2026.
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