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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

inveterate.

Firmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɪnˈvɛtəɹɪt/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɪnˈvetəɹɪt/Australia

  1. Firmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing.

    an inveterate disease
    an inveterate habit

  2. Having had a habit (usually a bad habit) for a long time.

    an inveterate idler;   an inveterate gambler;   an inveterate smoker
    an inveterate traveller

  3. Malignant; virulent; spiteful.

Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1574; borrowed from Latin inveterātus (“of long standing, chronic”), perfect passive participle of inveterō and participial adjective (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in, into”) + veterō (“to age”), from vetus, veteris (“old”). Cognate with Italian inveterato, French invétéré. By surface analysis, in- (“not, opposite”) + veterate.

verb/ɪnˈvɛtəɹɪt/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɪnˈvetəɹɪt/Australia

  1. To fix and settle after a long time; to entrench.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1574; borrowed from Latin inveterātus (“of long standing, chronic”), perfect passive participle of inveterō and participial adjective (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in, into”) + veterō (“to age”), from vetus, veteris (“old”). Cognate with Italian inveterato, French invétéré. By surface analysis, in- (“not, opposite”) + veterate.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.