veteran
/ˈvɛ.tə.ɹən/US[ˈvɛ.t̬ə.ɹən]
veteran noun: a person with long experience of a particular activity.
Noun
veteran (plural veterans)
- A person with long experience of a particular activity.
- The company's new hires were nervous, but the veterans were self-assured because, as one summarized it, "this isn't our first rodeo."
- Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising...2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2020, page 70
- A person who has served in the armed forces, especially an old soldier who has seen long service.
- We honor veterans and senior citizens with a ten percent discount.
- For 55-year-old U.S. Army veteran Sae Joon Park, this was the hardest moment of his life. […] Park's story reflects both the challenges of life after combat and the perils that noncitizen veterans face if caught in the legal system — realities made harsher amid the Trump administration's push for...2025 June 24, Juliana Kim, “Purple Heart Army veteran self-deports after nearly 50 years in the U.S.”, in NPR
- A group, animal, etc. with long experience of a particular activity.
- Their mules were clearly veterans. They seemed to know what to do even better than the teenage farmhand who was driving the team.
- Most of the cars which we call "veterans" today were on view at the Motor Show of 1911.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 87
Adjective
veteran (not comparable)
- Having had long experience, practice, or service.
- The insinuating eloquence and delicate flattery of veteran diplomatists and courtiers.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
- Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins like a veteran army that had marched down to drink, only to be stricken motionless at the water’s edge.1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
- Of or relating to former members of the military armed forces, especially those who served during wartime.
Proper noun capitalized: Veteran
Veteran
- A village in Special Area No. 4, eastern Alberta, Canada.
- A ghost town in White Pine County, Nevada.
- A town in Chemung County, New York.
- A hamlet in Ulster County, New York.
- A census-designated place in Goshen County, Wyoming.
- A rural locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia.
veteran meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
veteran in Hindi
- veteran
- वयोवृद्ध vayovŕddh
veteran in Tamil
- ஆரறிவாளர், துறைத்தேர்ந்தோர், நீள்பட்டறிவாளர், மிக்கத் தேர்ந்தவர், முதுவர்
veteran in Urdu
- آزمودہ کار, سابق فوجی
veteran in Bengali
- ঘুঘু, জাসু, দীর্ঘকালের পুরাতন কর্মী, ঝুনা, ঝানু, অভিজ্ঞ
More languagesFewer languages
- veteran in Malayalam
- അനുഭവസമ്പന്നനായവൻ, യുദ്ധവിദഗ്ദ്ധൻ, ദീർഘാഭ്യാസമുള്ള
- veteran in Kannada
- ಪರಿಣತ, ನುರಿತವನು, ಅನುಭವಿ, ಕದೀಮ
- veteran in Gujarati
- પીઢ
- veteran in Odia
- ଭେଟେରାନ୍, ଭେଟେରାନ
- veteran in Arabic
- مُحَارِب قَدِيم muḥārib qadīm
- veteran in Persian
- کهنهکار kohne-kâr, کارکشته kâr-košte, کهنهسرباز kohne-sarbâz
- veteran in Vietnamese
- cựu binh, lính cũ
Examples of veteran in a sentence
- Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans.2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2020, page...
- The label has often collaborated with other designers, like Australian shoemaker Teva and American woolwear veteran Pendleton.2018 April 1, Cristian Bonetto, Lonely Planet Pocket Copenhagen, →ISBN, page 81:
- She spoke in the unmistakable tones of a veteran contradictor.1980, Stephen King, The Mist, Viking Press:
Synonyms of veteran
Forms of veteran
| plural | veterans |
|---|
Origin of veteran
Borrowed from Middle French vétéran, from Latin veterānus.
Words formed from veteran
Phrases with veteran
Questions about veteran
- What does veteran mean?
- Veteran means a person with long experience of a particular activity.
- What is veteran in Hindi?
- Veteran in Hindi is वयोवृद्ध (vayovŕddh). See Veteran meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use veteran in a sentence?
- Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans.
- What part of speech is veteran?
- Veteran can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce veteran?
- Veteran is pronounced /ˈvɛ.tə.ɹən/.
- What is the plural of veteran?
- The plural of veteran is veterans.
Words near veteran in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: veteran (page history and authors); Veteran (page history and authors); वयोवृद्ध (Hindi) (page history and authors); veteran (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); veteran (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); veteran (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); veteran (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); veteran (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); veteran (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); veteran (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-veteran.wav.
Cite this entry: “veteran.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/veteran. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.