threat

THRET/θɹɛt/

Pluralthreats

5 meanings of threat

Practice

1
source of dangernouncountable
Someone or something considered likely to cause harm or to put others in danger.
The dictator was seen as a threat to regional stability.
Invasive species can become serious threats to native wildlife.
UsageUsually pose a threat to someone or something, or be seen as a threat: a threat to native wildlife.
Similarmenace, danger, hazard
Note
Sports reporting uses this sense for a side or player able to do real damage. A team that "barely posed a threat of any consequence" gave its opponents an easy night. Writing on world affairs uses the same frame, as when the Japan Times in 2022 described NATO's "identification of China as a threat."
2
promise to hurtnouncountable or uncountable
A statement or action showing intent to injure or punish another person.
She reported the threat to the police immediately.
The gang's threats forced the shop owner to pay protection money.
UsageYou make a threat against someone; threats of violence. The verb is threaten: he threatened to call the police.
Similarwarning
Note
Words are not required: in Richard Rhodes's Dark Sun, bombers flying deliberately toward Soviet airspace make "an unambiguous threat" without saying anything. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare uses it for words meant to frighten: "There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats."
3
nouncountable or uncountable
A sign of potential or imminent danger.
The threat of an avalanche kept the mountain pass closed all weekend.
With the threat of frost tonight, farmers covered their young plants.
UsageUsually the threat of + the danger, and to + what is at risk: the threat of flooding to coastal towns.
Similardanger, risk, peril
Note
Here no one has to make the threat. Unlike a spoken threat, this one is a danger read from circumstances. It usually comes as the threat of something: the threat of rain or frost, or, in a 2013 American Scientist article on eggs and sperm, the threat of microbial attack.

Less common meanings

4
verbarchaictransitive or intransitive
To threaten someone or something, or to use menacing words or behavior.
5
verbobsoletetransitive
To put pressure on someone, urging or compelling them to do something.

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Origins

Meanings 1–3

From Middle English threte, from Old English þrēat ("crowd, troop, pressure, force, violence, threat"), from Proto-Germanic *þrautaz. This traces back to Proto-Indo-European *trewd- ("to squeeze, push, press"), which also gave Latin trūdō ("push") and Russian труд ("work, labour").

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

Threat derives from Middle English threte. en.wiktionary.org
The Middle English word derives from Old English þrēat, with the listed meanings. en.wiktionary.org
Old English þrēat derives from reconstructed Proto-Germanic *þrautaz. en.wiktionary.org
The word ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *trewd-, meaning to squeeze, push, or press. en.wiktionary.org
Latin trūdō derives from the same root and means push. en.wiktionary.org
Russian труд derives from the same root. en.wiktionary.org
Russian труд means work or labour. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 4–5

Akin to Middle Dutch drōten ("to threaten"), the verb goes back to Old English þrēatian ("to press, oppress, correct, threaten"), which became Middle English threten.