Other forms: risks, risked, risking
Risk is the chance that something bad will come of what you do. Take a risk, at risk, risk assessment.
Formally it combines how likely a bad outcome is with how bad it would be, which is why a small chance of disaster and a large chance of nuisance can carry the same weight. A risk assessment is a legal requirement for most workplace activity in Britain. Note at risk, which describes people rather than actions; risk-averse; and that risk is a verb too — risk your neck, risk everything.
1nounriskThe chance that something bad will come of what you do.
“There is a small risk of infection after any operation.”
2verbexposeTo expose yourself to that chance.
“He risked his life to save the drowning child.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
risk is a chance of harm.
Also accepted in games: danger
The word came through French from Italian rischio, of genuinely disputed origin — proposals include a Greek word for a cliff and an Arabic one for fortune. It displaced the Old English pleoh.
Italian
risco
Ancient Greek
ῥιζικόν — root, radical, hazard
Latin
resecō — cut off, loose, curtail
Vulgar Latin
*resecum — that which cuts, rock, crag
roa-oit
risco — risk
Middle French
risque
English, today
risk
Built from
From risque. From earlier risque, from Middle French risque, from roa-oit risco (“risk”) (modern Italian rischio) and rischiare (“to run into danger”). Displaced native Old English pleoh (“risk”) and plēon (“to risk”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA