vial

American  

[vahy-uhl, vahyl] / ˈvaɪ əl, vaɪl /

noun

vials plural

1. Also a small container, as of glass, for holding liquids.

   a vial of rare perfume; a vial of medicine.

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verb (used with object)

vialed, vialing, vialled, vialling

1. to put into or keep in a vial.

idioms

1. pour out vials of wrath, to wreak vengeance or express anger.

   In her preface she pours out vials of wrath on her detractors.

vial British  

/ ˈvaɪəl, vaɪl /

noun

1. a less common variant of phial

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• vials
  plural

Etymology

Origin of vial

1300–50; Middle English viole, variant of fiole phial

Explanation

The word vial sounds like another word, "vile" (making them homonyms), but they mean completely different things. A vial is just a small glass bottle that contains a chemical or drug. "Vile" is evil. One of the coolest things about the English language is how specific you can get. For example, got a small glass bottle made for carrying chemicals or drugs? There's a word for that! That word is vial. There are bottles for soda and bottles for beer, but if what you're carrying is drugs, chemicals, or similar substances, you're carrying them in a vial.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vial vials vialed vialled

So Reavie deputized a friend of a friend in D.C. to dip a vial into the green water and ship it to him overnight.

From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2026

The band joked they had snuck in a vial of their own tears to promote their single A Tear in Space, and pretended to hide them in the capsule.

From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026

Soon-Shiong also referred to Anktiva as a “single jab,” later adding that it was a “little vial that you inject subcutaneously.”

From Barron's ● Mar. 24, 2026

Security Council, where he held up a small vial of white powder to illustrate the alleged danger of Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons.

From Salon ● Mar. 7, 2026

Again, he held up the vial to the light, giving it a flick with his finger.

From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool

Providing a patient with additional vials of antivenom is dependent on several factors that include the swelling of the bite area, the patient’s pain level and blood work results, Vohra said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

It is currently unclear whether the vials have been used, which would make them a biohazard.

From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026

The demand has given rise to a burgeoning gray market, where wellness spas, multilevel marketers and telehealth websites ply the public with vials of “research grade” peptides labeled “not for human use.”

From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2026

As the lab technician prepared my vials, I told him, “I’m going to upload my blood work to AI!”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

She begins to take items out from her tote bag: a large cloth for us to sit on, a box she says contains small vials of essential oils.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold

But by the time the health agency ordered 500,000 doses worth to be vialed on June 10, other countries with outbreaks had submitted their own orders and the earliest delivery date was October.

From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2022

When the demand for vaccines became an outcry, though, the agency found the money to pay for five million more doses to be vialed.

From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2022

My vialed water samples are sitting in a tube rack.

From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera

Little pseudo-scorpions were very abundant, and I could have vialed hundreds.

From Jungle Peace by Beebe, William

In fact, his ingenuous enthusiasm for this vialled virility seems for the moment to have swept him off his feet.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• bottle
• flask