vagrant
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vaygruhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈveɪɡɹənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
specifically
A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.
biologyespecially ornithology
An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.
Vagrans egista, a widely distributed Asian butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.
adjective
Wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation.
figurative
Moving without a certain direction; roving, wandering; also, erratic, unsettled.
Of or pertaining to a vagabond or vagrant, or a person fond of wandering.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (specifically) A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.
Used this way, vagrant is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Deceptive or misleading
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.