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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

vicarious.

Delegated.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/vɪˈkɛəɹi.əs/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/vaɪˈkɛəɹi.əs/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/vaɪˈkɛɹi.əs//vəˈkɛɹi.əs/
  1. Delegated.

    not-comparable
  2. Experienced or gained by taking in another person’s experience rather than through first-hand experience, such as through watching or reading.

    not-comparable
    People experience vicarious pleasures through watching television.
  3. On behalf of others.

    not-comparable
    The concept of vicarious atonement, that one person can atone for the sins of another, is found in many religions.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyk-der. Latin vicis Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -ārius Latin vicāriusbor. Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Old French -usbor. Middle English -ous English -ous English vicarious From Latin vicārius (“vicarious, substituted”) + English -ous. First attested in the 17th century. Doublet of vicar.

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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.