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
Zachary Schermele, USA Today, 14 Feb. 2026
Do not let our youth be manipulated by agents of chaos into participating in protests, jeopardizing their education and future.
—Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Feb. 2026
New York Republicans have filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court for a stay on a state court’s redistricting decision that jeopardizes New York City‘s only GOP district.
—Molly Parks, The Washington Examiner, 13 Feb. 2026
Those proposals, including tighter limits on non-disaster spending and new legislative oversight, were rejected by Senate Republicans wary of jeopardizing negotiations with the governor or risking the fund’s expiration.
—Garrett Shanley, Miami Herald, 13 Feb. 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 16 Feb. 2026.
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