Word.ws English Dictionary

vestal

/ˈvɛs.t(ə)l/

vestal adjective: of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth.

Adjective (1)

vestal (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth.
  2. Pure; chaste.
    • Does money fail?—come to my mint—coin paper,
      Till gold be at a discount, and ashamed
      To show his bilious face, go purge himself,
      In emulation of her vestal whiteness.1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts

Noun

vestal (plural vestals)

  1. A virgin consecrated to Vesta, and to the service of watching the sacred fire, which was to be perpetually kept burning upon her altar; a vestal virgin.
  2. A female virgin; a woman who has never had sexual relations.
  3. A nun.

Adjective (2) capitalized: Vestal

Vestal (not comparable)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of vestal (Pertaining to the goddess Vesta)
  2. Synonym of Vestan (Pertaining to the asteroid Vesta)
    Synonyms:
    Vestan

Proper noun capitalized: Vestal

Vestal

  1. A surname.
  2. A town in Broome County, New York, United States.

Synonyms of vestal

Forms of vestal

pluralvestals

Origin of vestal

Learned borrowing from Latin Vestālis.

From Vesta + -al.

Words formed from vestal

Phrases with vestal

Words that rhyme with vestal

Questions about vestal

What does vestal mean?
Vestal means of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth.
What part of speech is vestal?
Vestal can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce vestal?
Vestal is pronounced /ˈvɛs.t(ə)l/.

Words near vestal in the dictionary

  1. vest frottoirs
  2. vest in interest
  3. Vest-Agder
  4. vest-pocket
  5. vesta
  6. vestal
  7. vestal virgin
  8. vestal virgins
  9. Vestalia
  10. Vestalian
  11. vestally

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vestal (page history and authors); Vestal (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-vestal.wav.

Cite this entry: “vestal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vestal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.