precarity

noun

pre·​car·​i·​ty pri-ˈker-ə-tē 

: the state or condition of being precarious : precariousness

The older brother—Dave—raises the younger one, a responsibility that gives him a perpetual sense of life's urgency and precarity.

—Paul Elie

Job precarity can add to a number of social and economic challenges facing millennials including rising personal debts, growing costs of living, shrinking access to pensions and lower retirement savings.

—Arif Jetha

Examples of precarity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Kika explores a particular collision of collapse and reinvention, observing how financial precarity and pressure can erode personal boundaries and generate unexpected forms of empowerment. —Catherine Bray, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025

Still, there is plenty of precarity baked into these investments. —Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 30 Oct. 2025

Quasi-forensic in its precision, the work is based on thousands of satellite images—an expression of anxiety about Black history’s precarity. —Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025

Climate volatility, economic precarity, geopolitical unrest and an algorithmic attention economy are all conspiring to keep us in survival mode. —Chris Schembra, Rolling Stone, 22 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from French précarité, from précaire "granted or exercised only with the permission of another, insecure, uncertain" (going back to Middle French, borrowed from Latin precārius "given as a favor, uncertain, precarious") + -ité -ity

First Known Use

1910, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for precarity

• alterity
• asperity
• austerity
• celerity
• dexterity
• disparity
• hilarity
• molarity
• planarity
• polarity
• posterity
• prosperity