overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

vagrant.

A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈveɪɡɹənt/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.

    dated
  2. A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.

    specifically
    Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighbourhood begging for food.
  3. Any member of the species Vagrans egista of widely distributed Asian butteflies of the family Nymphalidae.

  4. An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.

    especially
Where this word comes from

From Late Middle English vagraunt (“person without proper employment; person without a fixed abode, tramp, vagabond”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant (“vagrant”) [and other forms] and Old French walcrant, waucrant (“roaming, wandering”) [and other forms], perhaps influenced by Latin vagārī, the present active infinitive of vagor (“to ramble, stroll about; to roam, rove, wander”). Old French walcrant is the present participle of vagrer, wacrer, walcrer (“to wander, wander about as a vagabond”) [and other forms], from Frankish *walkrōn (“to wander about”), the frequentative form of *walkōn (“to walk; to wander; to stomp, trample; to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing)”), from Proto-Germanic *walkōną (“to roll about, wallow; to full”), *walkaną (“to turn, wind; to toss; to roll, roll about; to wend; to walk; to wander; to trample; to full”), from Proto-Indo-European *walg-, *walk-, *welgʰ-, *welk-, *wolg- (“to turn, twist; to move”), ultimately from *welH- (“to turn; to wind”). The English word is cognate with Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Middle Dutch walken (“to knead; to full”), Old English wealcan (“to roll”), ġewealcan (“to go; to walk about”), Old High German walchan, walkan (“to move up and down; to press together; to full; to walk; to wander”), Old Norse valka (“to wander”). See further at walk.

adj/ˈveɪɡɹənt/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation.

    a vagrant beggar
  2. Of or pertaining to a vagabond or vagrant, or a person fond of wandering.

  3. Moving without a certain direction; roving, wandering; also, erratic, unsettled.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

From Middle English vagraunt, vagaraunt (“having no proper employment; having a tendency to go astray or wander; wayward”), from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant (“vagrant”) and Old French walcrant, waucrant (“roaming, wandering”); see further at etymology 1.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

vagrant has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

vagrant studiovagrant workshello, vagrant

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.