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

Both will surely relocate to other theaters—the opera has already found hosts for its 2027 and 2028 shows—but the precarity and disruption of not having a permanent home are inarguable. —Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 4 Feb. 2026

Restaurants have always existed at the intersection of pleasure and precarity. —Lela London, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026

More often, though, Tallent demonstrates his characters’ precarity rather than declaiming about it. —Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2026

The result is silence enforced by precarity. —Christine Villabona-Kuntz, New York Daily News, 19 Jan. 2026

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