Word.ws English Dictionary

vexel

vexel is the alternative form of veksel.

Meaning of veksel

Noun

veksel (plural veksels)

  1. A promissory note or bill of exchange, particularly in Russia and Ukraine: a security which entitles its owner to claim certain property of its issuer (the debtor).
    • […] veksels - were a dominant form of subnational debt. The popularity of veksels was related to soft regulatory requirements concerning their issue and circulation as well as to additional benefits from seignorage[…]1999 January 1, Lev M. Freinkman, Daniel Treisman, Stepan Titov, Subnational Budgeting in Russia: Preempting a Potential Crisis, World Bank Publications, →ISBN, page 42

Noun

vexel (plural vexels)

  1. (US, obsolete, rare) A troublemaker, a person who wants to change things.
    • […] highly sensitized individuals of neurotic tendencies who manifest in their state of unrest a morbid desire to change everything. […] Let us [...] classify such people by combining a Latin and German root and calling the individuals "vexels" (Latin vexare, to shake : German wexeln, to change)....1915, Robert T. Morris, Educational Review ..., page 460
    • […] in which what a Trustee of Cornell once called "vexels" or mischief-makers can break the continuity of an institution and set back for years its best interests. The very fact that "vexels" know that some excellent men in responsible positions sometimes advise that at any cost[…]1917, Nicholas Murray Butler, Frank Pierrepont Graves, William McAndrew, Educational Review, page 419

Forms of vexel

pluralvexels

Origin of vexel

Coined in the early 1900s by a trustee of Cornell University, from Latin vexō (“shake”) and German wechseln (“change”).

Questions about vexel

What does vexel mean?
Vexel means a troublemaker, a person who wants to change things.
What is vexel the alternative form of?
Vexel is the alternative form of veksel.
What part of speech is vexel?
Vexel is a noun.
What is the plural of vexel?
The plural of vexel is vexels.

Words near vexel in the dictionary

  1. vexe
  2. vexed
  3. vexedly
  4. vexedness
  5. vexeing
  6. vexel
  7. vexels
  8. vexer
  9. vexers
  10. vexes
  11. vexest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vexel (page history and authors); veksel (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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Cite this entry: “vexel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vexel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.