venerable
/ˈvɛnəɹəbl/
venerable adjective: commanding respect because of age, dignity, character or position.
Adjective (1)
venerable (comparative more venerable, superlative most venerable)
- Commanding respect because of age, dignity, character or position.
- Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have...2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
- Worthy of reverence.
- We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the pacific yet august light of abiding memories.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194...
- Synonyms:
- estimable, honorable, respectable
- Antonyms:
- contemptible
- Ancient, antiquated or archaic.
- And then bills were sent in, and the question arose, what could Jude do with his great-aunt's heavy old furniture if he left the town to travel he knew not whither? This, and the necessity of ready money, compelled him to decide on an auction, much as he would have preferred to keep the venerable...1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VI, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC, part V (At Aldbrickham and...
- Made sacred especially by religious or historical association.
- Giving an impression of aged goodness and benevolence.
Adjective (2) capitalized: Venerable
Venerable (comparative more Venerable, superlative most Venerable)
- A form of address for an archdeacon in the Anglican Church.
- The description in the Roman Catholic Church of someone in the first stages of canonisation.
- The description of some saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Noun capitalized: Venerable
Venerable (plural Venerables)
venerable meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
venerable in Hindi
- commanding respect because of age, dignity, character or position
- श्रद्धास्पद śraddhāspad
- worthy of reverence
- श्रद्धास्पद śraddhāspad
venerable in Tamil
- வணங்குதற்குரிய, வணங்குவதற்குரிய, சங்கைக்குரிய
venerable in Marathi
- venerable, dignified; great in years, rank, birth
- थोर thor
venerable in Urdu
- عتیق, بزرگ, محترم, متبرک, پرانا, قابل احترام
More languagesFewer languages
- venerable in Bengali
- বয়স, চরিত্র, প্রজ্ঞার কারণে অত্যন্ত শ্রদ্ধেয়
- venerable in Telugu
- పూజ్యము pūjyamu
- venerable in Malayalam
- അഭിവന്ദ്യ, ആരാധ്യ
- venerable in Kannada
- ತಕ್ಕಮೆಯ, ಗೌರವಾರ್ಹ, ಗೌರವಾನ್ವಿತ, ಪೂಜ್ಯ
- venerable in Gujarati
- પૂજનીય, પૂજ્ય
- venerable in Odia
- ପୂଜନୀଯ଼, ପୂଜ୍ଯ଼
- venerable in Sanskrit
- भट्ट bhaṭṭa, घोर ghorá, गुरु gurú
Examples of venerable in a sentence
- Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip.2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- This, and the necessity of ready money, compelled him to decide on an auction, much as he would have preferred to keep the venerable goods.1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VI, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […]...
Synonyms of venerable
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- cobwebby
- decrepit
- eldern
- gray
- moss-grown
- old
- old as the hills
- old as the Pyramids
- older than dirt
- older than the hills
- older than the Pyramids
- wintry
- anachronistic
- antiquated
- antique
- archaic
- backward
- backwards
- behind the times
- defunct
- desuete
- discontinued
- disused
- dootsie
- elderly
- extinct
- expired
- fossilized
- Havishamesque
- idle
Antonyms
Forms of venerable
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more venerable |
| superlative | most venerable |
| comparative | more Venerable |
| superlative | most Venerable |
| Noun | |
| plural | Venerables |
Origin of venerable
From Middle French vénérable, from Old French, from Latin venerabilis.
Words formed from venerable
Questions about venerable
- What does venerable mean?
- Venerable means commanding respect because of age, dignity, character or position.
- What is venerable in Hindi?
- Venerable in Hindi is श्रद्धास्पद (śraddhāspad). See Venerable meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use venerable in a sentence?
- Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip.
- What part of speech is venerable?
- Venerable can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce venerable?
- Venerable is pronounced /ˈvɛnəɹəbl/.
Words near venerable in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: venerable (page history and authors); Venerable (page history and authors); venerable (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); थोर (Marathi) (page history and authors); venerable (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); venerable (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); venerable (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); venerable (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); venerable (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); venerable (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); गुरु (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-venerable.wav.
Cite this entry: “venerable.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/venerable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
