A precipice is an extremely steep or overhanging cliff face, the kind where one more step would send you tumbling down hundreds of feet. Picture standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, looking straight down at the rocks far below: that sheer drop is a precipice. Mountain climbers must carefully navigate precipices, and hikers who wander too close to the edge of one risk a dangerous fall.

A precipice is a place where the ground ends suddenly and dramatically, creating a sheer vertical drop.

People also use precipice figuratively to describe being on the verge of disaster or a major change. A business teetering on the precipice of bankruptcy is dangerously close to failing. A country on the precipice of war faces an imminent, serious crisis. In these cases, the word suggests that one wrong move could lead to catastrophe, just as one careless step near a cliff's edge could mean a deadly fall. Whether literal or figurative, a precipice represents that dangerous edge where everything could change in an instant.