Meaning & use
safe
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Protected from danger, injury, loss, or harm; not likely to be hurt.
Grammar: Often predicative or with from: safe from harm; compare safer and safest.
Patterns
- safe from something
- keep someone safe
- feel safe
- safe place
Keep the files in a safe place where children cannot reach them.
She felt safe walking home with her brother.
The harbor walls keep boats safe from strong waves.
adjectivebefore a noun
Not dangerous or likely to cause harm, damage, or risk.
Grammar: Attributive or predicative; a safe car is unlikely to hurt people, different from a car kept safe.
Patterns
- a safe place
- safe levels
- safe to use
- safe driver
Make sure the ladder is safe before climbing it.
The water is not safe to drink after the flood.
A safe driver checks mirrors before changing lanes.
adjectivebefore a nounfigurative
Careful, unlikely to fail badly, offend, or produce an unwanted result.
Grammar: Often before nouns like choice, bet, or option; implies low risk rather than physical safety.
Patterns
- a safe choice
- safe bet
- safe option
- play it safe
Choosing the train was the safe option during the snowstorm.
A plain tie is a safe bet for the interview.
Let's play it safe and leave thirty minutes early.
Word forms
| comparative | safer |
|---|---|
| superlative | safest |
Common combinations
- safe and sound
- The hikers returned safe and sound before dark.
- safe from harm
- The vaccine helps keep many people safe from serious illness.
- safe place
- The library is a safe place to study after school.
- safe levels
- Officials tested the water and found safe levels of chlorine.
- play it safe
- We played it safe and booked a hotel near the airport.
Synonyms and how they differ
- secure
- Secure can mean firmly protected or fixed, and is common in finance; safe more often concerns danger to people or loss.
- harmless
- Harmless means not able or likely to cause harm; safe can mean protected or low-risk, not merely harmless.
- reliable
- Reliable means consistently dependable; the safe choice may be reliable but emphasizes low risk.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: safe or save?
safe vs save
Save is a verb meaning rescue, keep, or store; safe is an adjective meaning protected or low-risk.
Practice
After the earthquake, families waited for news that everyone was ___.
Choose one answer.
Safe and sound means unharmed; the other options either contradict the idea of being unhurt or do not form the fixed reassuring phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “safe”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.