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

This shift could usher in a new phase in the economy where the precarity of the labor market compels Americans—especially younger Americans—to make short-term choices that jeopardize their long-term financial security. —Daryl Fairweather, Forbes.com, 9 Apr. 2025

In the conversations about these governmental directives, the precarity of the humanities is rarely a focus of attention. —Harvey Young, Chicago Tribune, 12 Mar. 2025

Even The Golden Girls—a liberal sitcom, especially by the standards of the Reagan years—hardly mentioned the programs in its many episodes on financial precarity. —Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024

Contemporary sociology invites us, perhaps rightly, to extend the traditional concept to include the working-class experience of deindustrialization and the precarity of the white-collar knowledge worker denied a secure job. —Nikhil Krishnan, New Yorker, 31 Mar. 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