moral hazard
noun
Simple meaning
The prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mawruhlhazerdSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɔɹəlˈhæzɚd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
economicsinsurance
The prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (economics, insurance) The prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.
Used this way, moral hazard is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in finance or economics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Finance/economics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “moral hazard” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.