precipice
Americannoun
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a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.
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a situation of great peril.
on the precipice of war.
noun
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the steep sheer face of a cliff or crag
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the cliff or crag itself
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a precarious situation
Other Word Forms
- precipiced adjective
- unprecipiced adjective
Etymology
Origin of precipice
1590–1600; < Middle French < Latin praecipitium steep place, equivalent to praecipit- (stem of praeceps ) steep, headlong ( prae- pre- + -cipit-, combining form of caput head; caput ) + -ium -ium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I think we’re right at the precipice right now of the moment where we don’t have to say anything, where our partners are going to do all the talking,” Traina said.
They demolished Slovakia on Friday and are now on the precipice of finally capturing the gold medal they’ve been chasing for nearly five decades.
This elliptical approach is in part its strength, subtly illuminating how trying to move past one tragedy may bring a family to the precipice of another.
There is no doubting the "peril" he was in, nor that Labour MPs "looked over the precipice" and considered ditching the prime minister.
From BBC
But today, we stand on the precipice of something different: deepfakes and AI-generated content indistinguishable from reality.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
