endangers

Endangers is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb endanger. It means to place someone or something at risk of harm, injury, damage, or other negative outcomes. The object is typically a person, a group, a species, a plan, or another entity. For example: "Industrial pollution endangers coastal ecosystems" and "Failure to act endangers public health."

Endanger is a transitive verb: you endanger someone or something by exposing them to danger. The term conveys potential harm rather than certainty and is commonly used in risk assessments, safety reporting, journalism, and law. It is closely related to jeopardize, imperil, threaten, and risk, though endanger emphasizes exposure to danger rather than an inevitability of harm. The opposite concepts are to safeguard or protect. The adjective form endangered describes something that is in danger or at risk, such as endangered species.

Etymology and usage history: endanger derives from the prefix en- meaning "to make" or "to put into" plus danger, and it is attested in English from the late Middle Ages. Its Old French ancestor endangerer contributed to the modern verb form, with the sense of causing danger to someone or something. Today, endangers appears in both formal and informal contexts whenever risk to life, health, property, safety, or continuity is being described. It is commonly used in environmental, legal, public health, and policy discussions to denote actions or conditions that threaten harm.