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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

vessel.

A craft for transportation on or in water, air, or space.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈvɛsəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈvɛsɫ̩]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈvesəl/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. A craft for transportation on or in water, air, or space. Any craft designed for transportation on or in water, such as a ship, boat, or submarine.

  2. A craft for transportation on or in water, air, or space. A craft designed for transportation through air or space.

  3. Dishes and cutlery collectively, especially if made of precious metals.

    dialectal · obsolete · uncountable

  4. A container of liquid or other substance, such as a glass, goblet, cup, bottle, bowl, or pitcher.

  5. A person as a container of qualities or feelings.

    figuratively
    A teacher should be a vessel of knowledge.

  6. A tube or canal that carries fluid in an animal or plant.

    Blood and lymph vessels are found in humans; xylem and phloem vessels are found in plants.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wāss Latin vās Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Italic *-elom Latin -ulum Latin -culum Latin vāsculum Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Late Latin vāscellum Old French vaisselbor. Middle English vessel English vessel Inherited from Middle English vessel, vessell (“small container”); from Old French vaissel (compare modern French vaisseau and Catalan vaixell), from Late Latin vāscellum, diminutive of vāsculum, diminutive of vās (“vase, vessel”).

verb/ˈvɛsəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈvɛsɫ̩]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈvesəl/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. To put into a vessel.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wāss Latin vās Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Italic *-elom Latin -ulum Latin -culum Latin vāsculum Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Late Latin vāscellum Old French vaisselbor. Middle English vessel English vessel Inherited from Middle English vessel, vessell (“small container”); from Old French vaissel (compare modern French vaisseau and Catalan vaixell), from Late Latin vāscellum, diminutive of vāsculum, diminutive of vās (“vase, vessel”).

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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.