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veil

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

vayl
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈveɪl

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material.

  2. figurative

    Anything that partially obscures a clear view.

  3. A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.

  4. A covering for a person or thing; as, a caul (especially over the head)

  5. An obscuration of the clearness of the tones in pronunciation.

verb

  1. transitive

    To dress in, or decorate with, a veil.

  2. To obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil

    “Women in Afghanistan veil their faces.”

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material.

Used this way, veil is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use veil

  • “Women in Afghanistan veil their faces.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Thin / membranous

thin veilthick veil

Other combinations

black veilwhite veilbridal veildark veillace veil

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • veiledadjectiveInflected form

    Having or as if having a veil or concealing cover.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • veiled accusationnounCompound term

    An accusation that is understood without needing to be spoken.

  • take the veilverbCompound term

    Become a nun.

  • universal veilnounCompound term

    Membrane initially completely investing the young sporophore of various mushrooms that is ruptured by growth.

  • face veilnounCompound term

    A piece of more-or-less transparent material that covers the face.

  • humeral veilnounCompound term

    A vestment worn by a priest at High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church.

  • partial veilnounCompound term

    Membrane of the young sporophore of various mushrooms extending from the margin of the cap to the stem and is ruptured by growth.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: to dress in or or decorate with

unveil

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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.