caveat

American  

[kav-ee-aht, -at, kah-vee-, kay-] / ˈkæv iˌɑt, -ˌæt, ˈkɑ vi-, keɪ- /

noun

• caveats
  plural

1. 

   a warning or caution.

   Before proceeding with the investment, he was given a caveat about potential risks and volatility in the stock market.

2. Law. a legal notice to a court or public officer to suspend a certain proceeding until the notifier is given a hearing.

   a caveat filed against the probate of a will.

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verb (used with or without object)

1. to give a warning or caution (about information being presented).

   The authors of the paper caveated their findings with a reminder that further research would be necessary.

   Rather than hedging and caveating, I'll just say what I think.

caveat British  

/ ˈkeɪvɪˌæt, ˈkæv- /

noun

1. law a formal notice requesting the court or officer to refrain from taking some specified action without giving prior notice to the person lodging the caveat

2. a warning; caution

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• caveated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• caveats
  plural

Etymology

Origin of caveat

First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin: “let him beware,” 3rd-person singular present subjunctive of cavēre “to take care”; see caution

Explanation

A caveat is a warning. When someone adds a caveat to something they’re telling you to beware — maybe what they’re telling you comes with certain conditions or maybe there’s something dangerous lurking. When your new friend gives you directions to her house, and then says, “The caveat is that when it snows the driveway turns into an ice rink,” she's warning you that your travels could be dangerous. Caveat is also a legal term for when a lawyer asks for a break in proceedings. If a lawyer issues a caveat, she's filing a formal notice to suspend a trial until her client gets a hearing.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

caveat caveats

To be sure, there is at least one important caveat worth considering when taking historical performance into account.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 4, 2026

However, the caveat there is those individuals were already detained, so I had a starting point.

From Slate ● Sep. 24, 2026

A published report that frontier artificial-intelligence lab Anthropic was profitable for a second quarter in a row contains a very important caveat.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

But even here the reprieve has a caveat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

This latter caveat rewidened the gap that the earlier statement had seemed to close.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Pasquariello tackles a couple of other caveats investors might cite about buying stocks here.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

These caveats aren’t intended to dismiss the risks from AI, especially given its rapidly growing ability to train itself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

Most significantly, both the financial penalty and the new protections it agreed to have some major caveats.

From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026

There are obvious caveats with the data - for example, Dom Sibley, with a strike-rate of 34.48 played 21 Tests under Root.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

The table greatly simplifies a complex mass of historical facts: see the text for some of the many important caveats.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• admonition