Vigil

How to spell vigil

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce vigil

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vigil mean?

1. nounA period of staying awake to keep watch, pray, or honour someone, often held quietly at night.

Vigil in a sentence

• The family kept a vigil at the hospital bedside through the night.

• Supporters held a candlelit vigil in the square through the night.

Where does vigil come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes directly from the Latin vigil, an adjective meaning 'awake' or 'watchful', and the related noun vigilia, which named a period of staying awake at night to keep watch. In the Roman world a vigilia was also one of the night watches into which the dark hours were divided. English took the word up through Old French during the medieval period, when it most often described the religious practice of staying awake in prayer on the eve of a holy festival. From that devotional sense it broadened into the modern meaning of any watchful waiting, especially a gathering held quietly at night. The same Latin root survives in close relatives such as 'vigilant' and 'surveillance', and even in 'reveille', the bugle call that wakes soldiers, which is a helpful reminder that the heart of the word is simply being awake.

How the word is built

• vigil- (from Latin vigil: awake, watchful) used as a standalone noun