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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

menace.

A perceived threat or danger.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɛnɪs/
  1. A perceived threat or danger.

  2. The act of threatening.

  3. An annoying and bothersome person or thing.

    informal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English manace, from Old French manace, menace, &c., from Late Latin minācia (“threat, menace”), from Latin mināx (“threatening”) + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns).

verb/ˈmɛnɪs/
  1. To make threats against (someone); to intimidate.

    ambitransitive · transitive
    to menace a country with war
  2. To threaten (an evil to be inflicted).

    ambitransitive
  3. To endanger (someone or something); to imperil or jeopardize.

    ambitransitive
Where this word comes from

First attested in 1303: from Middle English manacen, from Old French menacer, manecier, manechier and Anglo-Norman manasser, from the assumed Vulgar Latin *mināciāre, from Latin minācia, whence the noun.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.