Word of the Day

: April 14, 2019

veritable

adjective VAIR-uh-tuh-bul

What It Means

: being in fact the thing named and not false, unreal, or imaginary — often used to stress the aptness of a metaphor

veritable in Context

"The availability of movies and TV shows on streaming services is a veritable merry-go-round these days, with so many titles coming and going that it's hard to keep things straight." — Bryan Bishop, The Verge, 29 July 2016

"Putting on shows at the amphitheater takes a large cohort of people, each with their own expertise, and I began to see that theatre was a veritable smorgasbord of options: lights, sound, props, costumes ... director, actor, stage manager, etc." — Casey Joiner, quoted in The Daily Toreador (Texas Tech University), 25 Feb. 2019

Did You Know?

Veritable, like its close relative verity ("truth"), came to English through Anglo-French from Latin. It is ultimately derived from verus, the Latin word for "true," which also gave us verify, aver, and verdict. Veritable is often used as a synonym of genuine or authentic ("a veritable masterpiece"), but it is also frequently used to stress the aptness of a metaphor, often in a humorous tone ("a veritable swarm of lawyers"). In the past, usage commentators have objected to the latter use, but today it doesn't draw much criticism.