different between momentous vs dangerous

English

Etymology

From moment +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /m???m?n.t?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mo??m?n.t?s/
• Rhymes: -?nt?s

Adjective

momentous (comparative more momentous, superlative most momentous)

1. Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.
   • 1725, Daniel Defoe, Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business:

     The reason why I did not publish this book till the end of the last sessions of parliament was, because I did not care to interfere with more momentous affairs.

   • 1831, James Fenimore Cooper, Homeward Bound, ch. 31:

     "It has been a momentous month, and I hope we shall all retain healthful recollections of it as long as we live."

   • 1902, Joseph Conrad, The End of the Tether, ch. 3:

     What to the other parties was merely the sale of a ship was to him a momentous event involving a radically new view of existence.

   • 2007 July 1, Richard Dawkins, "Inferior Design," New York Times (retrieved 19 Nov 2013):

     Natural selection is arguably the most momentous idea ever to occur to a human mind, because it — alone as far as we know — explains the elegant illusion of design that pervades the living kingdoms and explains, in passing, us.

Derived terms

• momentously
• momentousness

Translations

Anagrams

• mesonotum

English

Etymology

From Middle English dangerous (“difficult, severe, domineering, arrogant, fraught with danger”), daungerous, from Anglo-Norman [Term?], from Old French dangereus (“threatening, difficult”), from dangier. Equivalent to danger +? -ous.

Displaced native Old English fr?cne.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?de?n?(?)??s/, /?de?nd??(?)??s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?de?nd?????s/, /?de?nd????s/, /?de?nd???s/, /?de?n???s/
• Hyphenation: dan?ger?ous

Adjective

dangerous (comparative more dangerous, superlative most dangerous)

1. Full of danger.

   • “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons?! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

2. Causing danger; ready to do harm or injury.
   • 1688, Aphra Behn, Oroonoko

     If they incline to think you dangerous / To less than gods

3. (colloquial, dated) In a condition of danger, as from illness; threatened with death.
4. (obsolete) Hard to suit; difficult to please.

   • My wages ben fule straite, and eke full smale; / My lorde is harde to me and daungerous.

5. (obsolete) Reserved; not affable.

   • Of his speech daungerous

Usage notes

The standard comparative and superlative are more dangerous and most dangerous; the forms dangerouser and dangerousest or dangerest exist but are nonstandard.

Synonyms

(full of danger):

• hazardous
• perilous
• risky
• unsafe
• See also Thesaurus:dangerous

Antonyms

• (full of danger): safe, harmless

Derived terms

• dangerous goods

Related terms

• danger
• dangerously

Translations

Anagrams

• nose guard, noseguard

Occitan

Adjective

dangerous m (feminine singular dangerouso, masculine plural dangerous, feminine plural dangerousos)

1. (Mistralian) Alternative form of dangeirós