better safe than sorry
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
It's wiser to avoid risks than to suffer potential consequences.
An toàn hơn là tránh rủi ro để không phải chịu hậu quả
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Examples
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “better safe than sorry” mean?
It's wiser to avoid risks than to suffer potential consequences.
Is “better safe than sorry” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
What is the closest equivalent?
“cẩn tắc vô ưu, vô áy náy” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.