Precarious

 WORD OF THE DAY

precarious / adjective / prih-KAIR-ee-us

Definition
1a: dependent on chance circumstances, unknown conditions, or uncertain developments
1b: characterized by a lack of security or stability that threatens with danger
2a: dependent on uncertain premises
2b: dubious
3 (archaic): depending on the will or pleasure of another

Examples
"Staff may be anxious about returning to the office and want to be assured of their safety while leaders are in the precarious position of having to make what they think is the right call."
— Bernard Coleman, Inc., 18 Aug. 2021

These states are corrupt and brutal. They are theocracies, or precarious autocracies, or secular totalitarian states: tyrannies all, deniers of freedom, republics of fear, enemies of civility and human flourishing.
— Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review, 15 Oct. 2001

Did You Know?

"This little happiness is so very precarious, that it wholly depends on the will of others."
Joseph Addison, in a 1711 issue of Spectator magazine, couldn't have described the oldest sense of precarious more precisely—the original meaning of the word was "depending on the will or pleasure of another."
Precarious comes from a Latin word meaning "obtained by entreaty," which itself is from the word for prayer, prex.