precarity

noun

pre·​car·​i·​ty pri-ˈker-ə-tē How to pronounce precarity (audio)
: 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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
But the decision is marred by financial precarity: At the moment, Crystal doesn’t have enough money to move to a state with more amenable laws. Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 13 June 2025 As an escaped convict posing as a beloved preacher, and as his gentle, upright twin, Robeson embodies a devastating split between appearance and truth, and whose uncanny doubling plays out in a community shaped by racial violence, spiritual deception, and economic precarity. Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 21 May 2025 This is the precarity of progress when the sample size is two, and female representation among Fortune 500 CEOs only recently crossed 10 percent. Aman Kidwai, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 June 2025 Welfare spending and critical social services, for instance, become downstream necessities, mitigating the precarity and homelessness that directly result from an economic model built to serve the needs of the rich. Daniel Wortel-London, New York Daily News, 26 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for precarity

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of precarity was in 1910

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Cite this Entry

“Precarity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/precarity. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.

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