Etymology

From Middle FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Middle French#VAGUE vague, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#VAGUE vagus (“uncertain, vague”, literally “wandering, rambling, strolling”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /veɪɡ/Category:English 1-syllable words#VAGUECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#VAGUE
• (Canada, Upper Midwestern US) IPA^(key): /væɡ/Category:English 1-syllable words#VAGUECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#VAGUE

• Audio (UK); [ve̞i̯ɡ̊]:

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#VAGUE

• Audio (US); [veːɡ]:

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#VAGUE
• Rhymes: -eɪɡ, -æɡCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪɡ#VAGUECategory:Rhymes:English/eɪɡ/1 syllable#VAGUECategory:Rhymes:English/æɡ#VAGUE

Adjective

vague (comparative vaguer, superlative vaguest)Category:English lemmas#VAGUECategory:English adjectives#VAGUECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#VAGUECategory:Pages with entries#VAGUECategory:Pages with 6 entries#VAGUE

1. Not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms.

   Synonyms: inarticulate, unclear; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

   • 1921, Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind:

     It follows from what has been said that a vague thought has more likelihood of being true than a precise one. To try and hit an object with a vague thought is like trying to hit the bull's eye with a lump of putty: when the putty reaches the target, it flattens out all over it, and probably covers the bull's eye along with the rest. To try and hit an object with a precise thought is like trying to hit the bull's eye with a bullet. The advantage of the precise thought is that it distinguishes between the bull's eye and the rest of the target.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

   • 2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage:

     Throughout the first week of his presidency, Dulles and Bissell continued to brief Kennedy on their strategy for Cuba, but the men were vague and their meetings offered little in the way of hard facts.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
2. Not having a precise meaning.

   Synonyms: ambiguous, equivocal

   a vague term of abuseCategory:English terms with usage examples#VAGUE

3. Not clearly defined, grasped, or understood; indistinct; slight.

   Synonyms: ambiguous, equivocal, indistinct, obscure; see also Thesaurus:vague

   only a vague notion of what’s neededCategory:English terms with usage examples#VAGUE

   a vague hint of a thickening waistlineCategory:English terms with usage examples#VAGUE

   I haven’t the vaguest idea.Category:English terms with usage examples#VAGUE

4. Not clearly felt or sensed; somewhat subconscious.

   a vague longingCategory:English terms with usage examples#VAGUE

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 62:

     ⁠For though my nature rarely yields
     ⁠To that vague fear implied in death;
     ⁠Nor shudders at the gulfs beneath,
     The howlings from forgotten fields; […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

5. Not thinking or expressing one’s thoughts clearly or precisely.

   Synonym: dazed

   • 1962, Philip Larkin, Toads Revisited:

     Waxed-fleshed out-patients / Still vague from accidents, / And characters in long coats / Deep in the litter-baskets […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
6. Lacking expression; vacant.

   Synonyms: vacant, vacuous

7. Not sharply outlined; hazy.

   Synonyms: fuzzy, hazy, ill-defined; see also Thesaurus:indistinct

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

8. Wandering; vagrant; vagabond.

   Synonyms: erratic, roaming, unsettled, vagrant, vagabond

   • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI:

     The Lord Gray incourag'd his men to set sharply upon the vague villains

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza VIII, page 87:

     She danced along with vague, regardless eyes, / Anxious her lips, her breathing quick and short: [...]

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

Noun

vague (plural vagues)Category:English lemmas#VAGUECategory:English nouns#VAGUECategory:English countable nouns#VAGUECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#VAGUECategory:Pages with entries#VAGUECategory:Pages with 6 entries#VAGUE

1. An indefinite expanse.
   • 1869 December (indicated as 1870 January), James Russell Lowell, “The Cathedral”, in James Thomas Fields, editor, The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XXV, number CXLVII, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:

     The gray vague of unsympathizing sea / That dragged his fancy from her moorings back / To shores inhospitable of eldest time.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

2. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#VAGUE) A wandering; a vagary.
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC:

     [T]he Scots had some leasure to plaie their vagues

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

Verb

vague (third-person singular simple present vagues, present participle vaguing, simple past and past participle vagued)Category:English lemmas#VAGUECategory:English verbs#VAGUECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#VAGUECategory:Pages with entries#VAGUECategory:Pages with 6 entries#VAGUE

1. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#VAGUE) to wander; to roam; to stray.
   • 1603, Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, commonly called, the Morals:

     [The soul] doth vague and wander.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
2. To become vague or act in a vague manner.
   • 1894, Mrs. Campbell Praed, Christina Chard, page 52:

     Vaguely, yes. I've vagued all my life; that's been my curse.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

   • 1939, John Steinbeck, East of Eden:

     A man's mind vagued up a little, for how can you remember the feel of pleasure or pain or choking emotion?

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

   • 2009, Zoe Foster Blake, Air Kisses, →ISBN:

     What's with you? You're all vagued out.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VAGUE

3. (Internet slangCategory:English internet slang#VAGUE, intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#VAGUE) To make vague negative comments publicly; to make highly veiled complaints or insults.

   Synonym: vaguepost

Further reading

• “vague”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “vague”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “vague”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Etymology

Borrowed from LatinCategory:Catalan terms borrowed from Latin#VAGUECategory:Catalan terms derived from Latin#VAGUE vagus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈba.ɣə]Category:Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation#VAGUE
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈva.ɣə]Category:Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation#VAGUE
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈva.ɣe]Category:Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation#VAGUE

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

  Category:Catalan terms with audio pronunciation#VAGUE

Adjective

vague (feminine vaga, masculine and feminine plural vagues)Category:Catalan lemmas#VAGUECategory:Catalan adjectives#VAGUECategory:Catalan entries with incorrect language header#VAGUECategory:Pages with entries#VAGUECategory:Pages with 6 entries#VAGUE

1. vague

Further reading

• “vague”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “vague”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “vague” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “vague”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vaɡ/Category:French 1-syllable words#VAGUECategory:French terms with IPA pronunciation#VAGUE

• Audio (France):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#VAGUE

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#VAGUE

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#VAGUE

• Audio (France (Hérault)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#VAGUE

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle FrenchCategory:French terms inherited from Middle French#VAGUECategory:French terms derived from Middle French#VAGUE vague, from Old FrenchCategory:French terms inherited from Old French#VAGUECategory:French terms derived from Old French#VAGUE vague (“movement on the surface of a liquid, ripple”), from Old NorseCategory:French terms derived from Old Norse#VAGUE vágr (“sea”), from Proto-GermanicCategory:French terms derived from Proto-Germanic#VAGUE *wēgaz (“wave, storm”), from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:French terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#VAGUE *weǵʰ- (“to drag, carry”).

Cognate with Swedish våg (“wave”), Middle Dutch waeghe, wage (“wave”), Old High German wāge (“wave”), Old English wǣg (“wave, billow, motion, flood”). More at waw, wave.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle FrenchCategory:French terms inherited from Middle French#VAGUECategory:French terms derived from Middle French#VAGUE vague, borrowed from LatinCategory:French terms derived from Latin#VAGUE vagus (“uncertain, vague”, literally “wandering, rambling, strolling”). Possibly a doublet of gaiCategory:French doublets#VAGUE.

Further reading

• “vague”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: va‧gue

Verb

vagueCategory:Galician non-lemma forms#VAGUECategory:Galician verb forms#VAGUECategory:Galician entries with incorrect language header#VAGUECategory:Pages with entries#VAGUECategory:Pages with 6 entries#VAGUE

1. inflection of vagar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Verb

vagueCategory:Portuguese non-lemma forms#VAGUECategory:Portuguese verb forms#VAGUECategory:Portuguese entries with incorrect language header#VAGUECategory:Pages with entries#VAGUECategory:Pages with 6 entries#VAGUE

1. inflection of vagar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaɡe/ [ˈba.ɣ̞e]Category:Spanish 2-syllable words#VAGUECategory:Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation#VAGUE
• Rhymes: -aɡeCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/aɡe#VAGUECategory:Rhymes:Spanish/aɡe/2 syllables#VAGUE
• Syllabification: va‧gue

Verb

vagueCategory:Spanish non-lemma forms#VAGUECategory:Spanish verb forms#VAGUECategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#VAGUECategory:Pages with entries#VAGUECategory:Pages with 6 entries#VAGUE

1. inflection of vagar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative