Vascular

How to spell vascular

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce vascular

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vascular mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the vessels that carry fluids such as blood in the body or sap in plants.

Vascular in a sentence

• The surgeon specialised in vascular conditions affecting the legs.

• Smoking damages the vascular system over many years.

Where does vascular come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin vasculum, a diminutive form meaning 'a little vessel' or 'small duct', which was built from vas, the ordinary Latin word for a vessel, dish, or container. The scientific suffix -aris (the source of English -ar) was attached to mean 'relating to', so the whole word literally describes anything 'relating to small vessels'. It entered English in the early eighteenth century through the language of anatomy and botany, where it described the tiny tubes that carry blood in animals or sap in plants. The same Latin vas survives today in the everyday word 'vase' and in the medical term 'vasectomy', which both trace back to that idea of a container or duct. Remembering the Latin vasculum helps with the spelling, since the word keeps the -cul- in the middle and ends in -ar rather than the more familiar -er.

How the word is built

• vascul- (from Latin vasculum: little vessel)
• -ar (adjective suffix: relating to)