These words refer to the possibility of harm or destruction. Danger , the most general of these, can refer to any situation that confronts one with an undesirable or injurious eventuality: He had stayed up so late that he was in danger of oversleeping and being late for word; discussions to reduce the danger of a military confrontation between the two nations. The word is a familiar warning on road signs.

• Danger , Winding road.

As in the last example, danger often suggests a difficulty that can still be avoided through forethought. By contrast, peril exclusively points only to grave dangers and may sometimes suggest a worsening situation that can no longer be averted by the use of forethought alone: Many species are already in peril of extinction because of our destruction of their natural habitat. More broadly, the word can suggest the unpredictable danger that must be faced in pursuing a course of action: the great perils that the earliest Arcitc explorers confronted.

Risk is related to this last use of peril , but is more general and can indicate less extreme or imminent danger . At its most specific, it indicates the chance of misfortune that accompanies an act undertaken in hope of gain or benefit: a business insured against the risk of failure. Here, the negative possibilities can to some extent be foreseen and weighted against the possibility of success: a calculated risk. Hazard can function as a more formal substitute for risk , though it may suggest that greater danger attends the action. In this, it combines the gravity of danger suggested by peril with the weighing or taking of chances suggested by risk : the hazards of mountain climbing. The word can also function as a hyperbole for the predictable liabilities in any situation: He braced himself for the hazards of an evening spent with his mother-in-law. It is also commonly used to refer to taking an unwise risk : Storing petrol in garage is a fire hazard . Jeopardy can substitute for risk at an even greater level of formality than hazard . It now mainly appears in the phrase in jeopardy : Such a gamble against odds would put their whole venture in jeopardy .

Threat and menace can both refer not danger inevitably accompanying an act but to a malevolent or coercive danger independent or external to oneself: an escaped psychopath who became a menace to the community. Menace suggests the possibility of violence or destruction and points to a graver danger than any of these words except peril . The word can also refer more emphatically than hazard to something that represents an unwise risk : a rickety stairway that was a menace to life and limb. Threat is milder than menace and much more general. Most concretely, it can indicate an expressed intention to harm: a threat against the witness’s life; a threat to expose him unless he continued to work for the gang. More generally, the word can indicate a situation or act that puts something in danger: provocations that were a threat to peace.