vigor

especially British, vig·our

[vig-er]

noun

1. active strength or force.

2. healthy physical or mental energy or power; vitality.

   Synonyms: strength, force, drive

3. energetic activity; energy; intensity.

   The economic recovery has given the country a new vigor.

4. force of healthy growth in any living matter or organism, as a plant.

5. active or effective force, especially legal validity.

Other Word Forms

• vigorless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of vigor¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English vigo(u)r, from Anglo-French; Middle French vigeur, from Latin vigor “force, energy,” from vig(ēre) “to be vigorous, thrive” + -or -or ¹

Idioms and Phrases

see vim and vigor.

Example Sentences

It is a reflex that often arises after stocks have exhibited great vigor, or when a strong corporate earnings reporting season is nearing an end.

Read more on Barron's

The language marked a departure from past plans, signaling renewed vigor to tackle structural economic imbalances.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

After taking office, Cheney pursued with implacable vigor his vision of sweeping presidential authority—an idea known as the unitary executive.

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Witness the renewed vigor of the far left in France, less than a decade after Emmanuel Macron’s election was said to mark a rebuke for the economic failures of his Socialist predecessor, François Hollande.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“We will protect our Judeo-Christian founding with vigor. . . .We have to bring back religion in this country, bring it back stronger than ever before,” he said.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• ability 
• agility 
• alertness www.thesaurus.com
• capability 
• dynamism 
• endurance 
• intensity 
• potency 
• quickness www.thesaurus.com
• strength 
• urgency 
• vitality