VIGIL
What does "VIGIL" mean?
A period of staying awake to keep watch, pray, or mourn, especially through the night.
Meanings
- A period of purposeful wakefulness, especially kept at night to watch, pray, or mourn. Mourners held a candlelit vigil outside the hospital.
- In Christian tradition, the eve of a religious festival, or a devotional service held on it. The congregation gathered for the Easter vigil. formal
Did you know?
- 'Vigil', 'vigilant', 'vigour', and 'surveillance' all grow from the same Latin root for being awake and alert - so to keep a vigil and to run surveillance are, etymologically, the same act of staying watchful.
Word origin
From Latin 'vigilia' meaning 'wakefulness, a watch', from 'vigil' ('awake, alert'); the root 'vig-' (to be lively) also gives 'vigour', 'vigilant', and 'reveille'.
Remember it
VIGIL holds the same 'vig-' as VIGilant and VIGour - to keep a vigil is to stay alert and awake when others sleep.
A little poem
Candles in a line-
the night is held back by hands
that will not lie down.
haiku
What it teaches
A vigil changes nothing and means everything: presence is the gift you give when you cannot give a fix.
Quick facts
What does VIGIL mean?
A period of staying awake to keep watch, pray, or mourn, especially through the night.
Is VIGIL a valid word?
Yes — VIGIL is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is VIGIL?
VIGIL has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does VIGIL come from?
From Latin 'vigilia' meaning 'wakefulness, a watch', from 'vigil' ('awake, alert'); the root 'vig-' (to be lively) also gives 'vigour', 'vigilant', and 'reveille'.
What can VIGIL teach us?
A vigil changes nothing and means everything: presence is the gift you give when you cannot give a fix.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.