Please Explain . . .

What "threat", "threaten" and "threatening" means in the context of a game of Chess ?

When a piece has the potential to take pieces that are on a certain square, it is threatening the square, and any piece that may or may not be on it.

It means that a player is in a position to take an action on his/her next move (unless the opponent takes steps to prevent it), for example capturing an opponent's piece/pawn, or occupying a square, or any other action that might benefit the player whose is doing the threatening...

Threatening could be in context of weak squares. I had a game the other day, by move 8 it was clear that the d4 and d5 squares where the "strong squares". Black was threatening to punch through the "c" file, and white was threateninh to dominate the a1 - h8 diagonal. 

Ultimately black won the war. Took some manuvering  to nullify white's domination of that diagonal. White still owned the diagonal, but it's white's ability to use it as an attack lane was nulified.

I'd post the game, but not sure if it beginners would get much out of looking at the game. 

these are just quirks of the English language

+1

Chillbhronie:

Threat, threaten, threatening mean the same thing.  It just depends on how it's used in a sentence. Just a grammer thing.