Other forms: ventures, ventured, venturing
To venture is to dare to go somewhere or to say something risky. Venture outside, venture an opinion, venture a guess.
It always implies some risk, however small — you venture out in bad weather and venture an opinion in a hostile room. As a noun, a venture is a risky undertaking, usually a business one: a joint venture, a new venture, venture capital, which is money invested in young companies. Note nothing ventured, nothing gained, which is the whole idea of the word in five words.
1verbventureTo dare to go somewhere or say something risky.
“Nobody dared to venture outside during the storm.”
2nounundertakingA risky undertaking, usually in business.
“The venture lasted about eighteen months and cost everything.”
venture is a risking.
Venture is a shortening of adventure, from Latin adventurus, about to happen. English cut the front off and kept the risk, so venture and adventure are the same word with the danger differently distributed.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷem-
English, today
venture
a clipping of adventure.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA