vestige

American  

[ves-tij] / ˈvɛs tɪdʒ /

noun

• vestiges
  plural

1. a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer present or in existence.

   A few columns were the last vestiges of a Greek temple.

   Synonyms:

   token

2. a surviving evidence or remainder of some condition, practice, etc..

   These superstitions are vestiges of an ancient religion.

3. a very slight trace or amount of something.

   Not a vestige remains of the former elegance of the house.

   Synonyms:

   suggestion, hint

4. Biology. a degenerate or imperfectly developed organ or structure that has little or no utility, but that in an earlier stage of the individual or in preceding evolutionary forms of the organism performed a useful function.

5. Archaic. a footprint; track.

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vestige British  

/ ˈvɛstɪdʒ /

noun

1. a small trace, mark, or amount; hint

   a vestige of truth

   no vestige of the meal

2. biology an organ or part of an organism that is a small nonfunctioning remnant of a functional organ in an ancestor

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Synonym Usage

See trace ¹.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• vestiges
  plural

Etymology

Origin of vestige

First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French, from Latin vestīgium “footprint”

Explanation

A vestige is a trace or reminder of something that has disappeared or is disappearing. A lump of snow with a carrot in it might be the vestige of a snowman. Vestige derives from the Latin vestigium, "footprint," and that is a good way to think of it — as a little hint of what was there before. It's something left behind, like a puddle after a heavy rainstorm. Sometimes vestige is used to emphasize a small amount; for example, you might say that the robber didn't show even a vestige of remorse after he was caught.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vestige vestiges

“Xochimilco is the last living vestige of the Aztec era,” says Arozarena.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Hainu, a vestige of the Japanese colonial era, shares some similarities with the centuries-old matriarchal tradition of haenyeo free-diving in South Korea, although Taiwan's sea women do not go underwater.

From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026

Warner has $33.5 billion in debt — another vestige of the 2022 merger, which led to thousands of job losses and dumped programming.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026

In the words of Gulf scholar Paul Rich, this was "the Indian Empire's last redoubt, just as Goa was Portuguese India's last solitary vestige, or Pondicherry was the tag-end of French India".

From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2025

Any vestige of doubt has been swept away.

From "Every Day" by David Levithan

So these are not just sort of weird random afterthoughts or vestiges.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

They were among the last vestiges of foreign investment in an economy dominated by the communist state.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026

Broken computer monitors in bombed-out offices, scattered fake police uniforms and phoney hundred-dollar bills: these were the vestiges of a frantic escape of suspected cyberscammers fleeing a resort on the Cambodia-Thailand border.

From Barron's ● Mar. 12, 2026

But most critically, venture capital has eaten away at the remaining vestiges of old-school journalism.

From Salon ● Mar. 7, 2026

Perhaps we have inherited only vestiges of the organs needed, only antique and archaic traces of the fragrance, and the memory may be forever gone.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

Related Words

• glimmer
• relic
• remnant
• residue