veil

C2+ Topic:Materials & Substances

US /veɪl/ UK /veɪl/ See IPA manual

Homophones

vail /veɪl/ vale /veɪl/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like bail /v/ vs /b/ Sounds like whale /v/ vs /w/

Meanings

1

noun
a piece of fine fabric worn to conceal or protect the face

The bride lowered her veil as she walked slowly down the aisle.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a piece of fine fabric worn... shroud cover screen mask cloak curtain

Opposites

reveal expose unveil uncover

Word family

Derived forms veiledunveil

Related forms vellum

Simplified etymology

Veil comes from Latin vela, the plural of velum “sail, covering, veil.” Its earliest English uses referred to a nun’s headdress, and it later developed figurative senses involving concealment or a barrier between the known and unknown.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman 'veil', Old French 'voile', from Latin 'vela', plural of 'velum' ('sail, curtain, covering').

veil Old French velum Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Materials & Substances

External links

# veil

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /veɪl/
**IPA (UK):** /veɪl/

## Meanings
1. a piece of fine fabric worn to conceal or protect the face

## Examples
- The bride lowered her veil as she walked slowly down the aisle.

## Synonyms
- shroud
- cover
- screen
- mask
- cloak
- curtain

## Antonyms
- reveal
- expose
- unveil
- uncover

## Derived Forms
- veiled
- unveil

## Related Forms
- vellum

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: veil
- Root: velum

## Etymology
From Anglo-Norman 'veil', Old French 'voile', from Latin 'vela', plural of 'velum' ('sail, curtain, covering').

## AI Etymology
Veil comes from Anglo-Norman 'veil', Old French 'voile', from Latin 'vela', plural of 'velum' ('sail, curtain, covering'). The historical chain includes Old French veil and Latin velum. The quoted older senses, "veil", "voile", "vela", "velum", and "sail, curtain, covering", supply the semantic anchors for veil. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word veil carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a piece of fine fabric worn to conceal or protect the face". English derivatives include veiled and unveil; related English forms include vellum. The result is a noun and verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Materials & Substances

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