precarity

Back-formation from precarious +‎ -ity

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkɛɹɪti/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkɛəɹɪti/

• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɛəɹɪti
• Hyphenation: pre‧ca‧ri‧ty

precarity (countable and uncountable, plural precarities)

1. (sociology) a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare.
   • 2014, Roland Paulsen, Empty Labor: Idleness and Workplace Resistance, →ISBN, page 82:

     A phenomenon that catches a general tendency towards obscurity is what Standing calls "uptitling" - to give a job a high-sounding epithet to conceal its precarity and, I would say, its substance.

   • 2021, Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land, page 622:

     Does the boy sense, already, the precarity of all this?

• see: precarious