vehicle
Americannoun
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vehicles
plural
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any means in or by which someone travels or something is carried or conveyed; a means of conveyance or transport.
a motor vehicle; space vehicles.
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a conveyance moving on wheels, runners, tracks, or the like, as a cart, sled, automobile, or tractor.
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a means of transmission or passage.
Air is the vehicle of sound.
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a carrier, as of infection.
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a medium of communication, expression, or display.
The novel is a fitting vehicle for his talents. Language is the vehicle of thought.
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Theater, Movies. a play, screenplay, or the like, having a role suited to the talents of and often written for a specific performer.
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a means of accomplishing a purpose.
College is a vehicle for success.
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Rhetoric. the thing or idea to which the subject of a metaphor is compared, as “rose” in “she is a rose.”
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Pharmacology. a substance, usually fluid, possessing little or no medicinal action, used as a medium for active remedies.
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Painting. a liquid, as oil, in which a pigment is mixed before being applied to a surface.
noun
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any conveyance in or by which people or objects are transported, esp one fitted with wheels
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a medium for the expression, communication, or achievement of ideas, information, power, etc
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pharmacol a therapeutically inactive substance mixed with the active ingredient to give bulk to a medicine
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Also called: base. a painting medium, such as oil, in which pigments are suspended
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(in the performing arts) a play, musical composition, etc, that enables a particular performer to display his talents
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a rocket excluding its payload
Pronunciation
Because the primary stress in vehicle is on the first syllable, the in the second syllable tends to disappear: . A pronunciation with primary stress on the second syllable and a fully pronounced is usually considered nonstandard: . In the adjective vehicular, where the primary stress is normally on the second syllable, the is always pronounced.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vehicle
First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin vehiculum, from veh(ere) “to carry, convey, ride” + -i- -i- + -culum -cle 2
Explanation
A vehicle gets you or your stuff where it needs to go. Even though the grocery store is only a few block away, you'll probably want to use a vehicle to get there, so you won't have to carry your groceries all the way home. A vehicle is anything that transports a person or thing, usually a car. But a vehicle can be a truck, a plane, a bus, a blimp or even a shopping cart, anything that transports people or things. Vehicle is also often used in the sense of a medium of expression. For example, if you're an artist, your art is the vehicle for your creative ideas. Some people believe that bread is just a vehicle for mayonnaise.
Vocabulary lists containing vehicle
Automobiles
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"Sports in America"
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List 8
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With a couple of exceptions, vehicle manufacturers, fleet owners and transit agencies are hesitant to invest in hydrogen products when they don’t know whether the fuel and filling stations will be there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Holding her breath, Kanowa maneuvered her vehicle to get the perfect shot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
The Ruesselsheim teams would in turn refocus on their core competencies -- vehicle parts such as chassis, seats, lighting, steering and driver-assistance systems.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Footage of the rescue shows one of the boys sat on the top of the front of the jet ski while the rest of the vehicle is submerged beneath choppy waves.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Malia had a provisional license by then and was able to drive herself around town, though always with agents following in their own vehicle.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
The company is most known for its camera network, which extracts data about cars from photographs and allows operators to search for vehicles by description or license plate number.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
Kelly added that police "do what they can to stop such vehicles while also taking into consideration all other road users".
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
The state is reluctant to fill the void left by federal funding after a series of bankruptcies and cancellations left only one truck maker and one bus maker selling hydrogen vehicles in North America.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Like the rest of the nation, California has seen a remarkable explosion in demand for electricity, driven in large part by the rise of artificial intelligence data centers, electric vehicles and building electrification.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
The large vehicles weren’t driving very fast, and the children could see the faces of the American soldiers sitting in the backs of the trucks in their green uniforms and hard helmets, holding their rifles.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
