vigilant
Americanadjective
-
keenly watchful to detect danger; wary.
a vigilant sentry.
- Antonyms:
- careless
-
ever awake and alert; sleeplessly watchful.
- Synonyms:
- sleepless, wide-awake
adjective
Usage
What does vigilant mean? To be vigilant is to be watchful or alert for danger or some other kind of trouble. Vigilant can describe a person or an action. It is often used when talking about keeping something out or in—whether that means keeping mistakes out of your work, robbers out of your home, or the dog inside the house. Example: We must be vigilant if we want to protect our home from invaders.
Related Words
See alert.
Other Word Forms
- hypervigilant adjective
- nonvigilant adjective
- nonvigilantly adverb
- nonvigilantness noun
- previgilant adjective
- previgilantly adverb
- supervigilant adjective
- supervigilantly adverb
- unvigilant adjective
- unvigilantly adverb
- vigilantly adverb
- vigilantness noun
Etymology
Origin of vigilant
First recorded in 1470–80; from Latin vigilant- (stem of vigilāns ), present participle of vigilāre “to be watchful”; vigil, -ant
Compare meaning
How does vigilant compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Use vigilant to describe someone who keeps awake and alert in order to avoid danger or problems. When taking the subway, be vigilant about your wallet — always know where it is, or someone might steal it from you. Vigilant descends from the Latin vigilare, "to be awake, watch," from vigil, "awake, alert." If you stay awake vigilantly all night, you're keeping watch or keeping a vigil. A vigilante (pronounced vij-uh-LAN-tee) is a person who acts outside the legal system to punish crime.
Vocabulary lists containing vigilant
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The Giver
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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.
Economists are vigilant for signs that energy-price increases caused by the Iran war are spreading into other industries and pushing up prices more broadly.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026
Mostly, he insisted, the unhoused neighbors were vigilant stewards, and helped with sweeping and trash pickup and the like; “99 percent of the time it was working great,” he said.
From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026
“That also teaches us that some of the greatest moral figures can be deeply flawed and that we have to be forever vigilant and demanding.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026
"They certainly shouldn't be complacent and they should always remain vigilant and that's a message I will continue to try and push."
From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026
Even in those early days, he’d looked like a vigilant chick, head tipped to one side, two impossibly bright and focused eyes, searching the room for her.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
