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
Nicole Fallert, USA Today, 1 May 2026
Republicans in some states cannot just eliminate all those districts without spreading enough Democratic voters around to jeopardize their own incumbents.
—Nicholas Riccardi, Chicago Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
The departure of the United Arab Emirates will deliver a blow to the cartel that could jeopardize its ability to influence the global oil market.
—Hanna Ziady, CNN Money, 29 Apr. 2026
Khanna told reporters Tuesday that the king had been advised by lawyers to not meet with the survivors so as to not jeopardize those investigations.
—Ana Ceballos
follow, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 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 5 May. 2026.
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