vehicle

Borrowed from French véhicule, from Latin vehiculum (“a carriage, conveyance”), from vehere (“to carry”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈviː.ɪ.kəl/, /ˈvɪə̯.kəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvi.ə.kəl/, /ˈviˌ(h)ɪ.kəl/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪː(ə).kəl/
• (Ireland, Indic, Appalachia) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛ.hɪ.kəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːɪkəl, -ɪəkəl, -iːəkəl, -iːɪkəl, -iːhɪkəl, -ɛhɪkəl
• Hyphenation: ve‧hi‧cle

vehicle (plural vehicles)

2. A conveyance: a spacious device for carrying or transporting substances, objects, people or animals.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:

     But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

   • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8842, archived from the original on 3 April 2021, page 28:

     Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. […] Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

   • 2020 January 1, Adam Hadhazy, “Achieving autonomy”, in Aerospace America‎^[2], archived from the original on 22 April 2025:

     Both vehicle types will feed that data into artificial intelligence systems that, having been trained through so-called machine learning, will identify, characterize and evaluate external phenomena.

3. A guided or aimed mobile object or apparatus, especially if intended or used as a weapon.

   kinetic kill vehicle

   • 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[3], volume 188, number 26, archived from the original on 13 August 2025, page 6:

     In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

4. A medium for expression of talent or views.

   supporting actors in a Steven Spielberg vehicle

5. A liquid content (e.g., oil) which acts as a binding and drying agent in paint.
6. (pharmaceuticals) The main excipient (such as an oil or gel) that conveys the active ingredient of a drug.

   an ointment with a petrolatum vehicle

7. An entity to achieve an end.

   mission service as a vehicle for development of better-rounded worldviews

8. (Buddhism) A mode or method of spiritual practice; a yana.
9. (Hinduism) An animal or (rarely) a plant on which a Hindu deity rides or sits.

• (Hinduism): vahan

• See also Thesaurus:vehicle

vehicle (third-person singular simple present vehicles, present participle vehicling, simple past and past participle vehicled)

1. To transport in a vehicle, or as if in a vehicle.
2. To travel in a vehicle.

• “vehicle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “vehicle”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “vehicle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Borrowed from Latin vehiculum.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [bəˈi.klə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [vəˈi.klə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [veˈi.kle]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

vehicle m (plural vehicles)

1. vehicle

• vehicular

• “vehicle”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007