# the sword of Damocles

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/the-sword-of-damocles
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

A constant, looming danger that could strike at any moment, hanging over someone who seems fortunate.

## Examples

- The threat of layoffs hung over us like the sword of Damocles.
- Even after the deal closed, the pending lawsuit remained the sword of Damocles over the whole company.
- Rising sea levels are the sword of Damocles hanging over the low island nation, a danger that shadows every prosperous plan its leaders try to make for the coming decades.

## Origin

At the court of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, a flatterer named Damocles could not stop praising his master's good fortune. What a blessed life the king led, he sighed — such wealth, such power, such luxury; surely no man alive was happier. The king listened, and made him an offer. Would Damocles care to taste that happiness for himself, just for a day? He agreed at once, and the king had him seated on the royal couch, robed in fine cloth, waited on by servants who set before him the richest food and the sweetest wine. Everything a man could want was his, and he began to think the king had been right about it all. Then he happened to glance up. Directly above his head, suspended point-down from the ceiling, hung a heavy gleaming sword — held there by nothing but a single hair from a horse's tail. One small movement, one snapped strand, and it would fall and run him through. Suddenly the food had no taste and the music no charm. Damocles could not swallow a mouthful, could not laugh, could not relax for a single instant, for his eyes kept creeping back to the thin thread and the bright blade swaying above it. He begged the king to release him, understanding at last the point being made: that behind every crown hangs a constant unseen threat. The sword of Damocles is exactly that hovering blade — an ever-present danger poised over a person's good fortune, ready to fall at any moment, and impossible to forget once you have felt it there.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.