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parlous

adjective

Simple meaning

Attended with peril.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pahrluhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɑɹləs

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Attended with peril; dangerous, risky.

  2. Appalling, dire, terrible.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Attended with peril; dangerous, risky.

Used this way, parlous is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

parlous stateparlous situationparlous positionparlous plightparlous caseparlous circumstancesparlous daysparlous conditions

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • parlornounPerson or profession · specialist

    Reception room in an inn or club where visitors can be received.

  • parlayverbDerived verb

    Stake winnings from one bet on a subsequent wager.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: attended with peril

perilousunsafe

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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.