venerable

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ven=er=a=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

venerable, a. [L. venerabilis: cf. F. vénérable.].

•  Capable of being venerated; worthy of veneration or reverence; deserving of honor and respect; -- generally implying an advanced age; as, a venerable magistrate; a venerable parent.  [1913 Webster]

  "He was a man of eternal self-sacrifice, and that is always venerable."  [1913 Webster]

  "Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation."  [1913 Webster]
•  Rendered sacred by religious or other associations; that should be regarded with awe and treated with reverence; as, the venerable walls of a temple or a church.  [1913 Webster]

  " This word is employed in the Church of England as a title for an archdeacon. In the Roman Catholic Church, venerable is applied to those who have attained to the lowest of the three recognized degrees of sanctity, but are not among the beatified, nor the canonized."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

venerable, adj.
1 entitled to veneration on account of character, age, associations, etc. (a venerable priest; venerable relics).
2 as the title of an archdeacon in the Church of England.
3 RC Ch. as the title of a deceased person who has attained a certain degree of sanctity but has not been fully beatified or canonized.

Derivative

venerability n. venerableness n. venerably adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF venerable or L venerabilis (as VENERATE)

THESAURUS

venerable

acknowledged, admirable, admitted, advanced, advanced in life, advanced in years, age-old, aged, ageless, along in years, ancient, antediluvian, antique, aristocratic, august, auld, awe-inspiring, awesome, awful, conventional, courtly, creditable, customary, dateless, dignified, divine, dreadful, elderly, established, esteemed, estimable, fixed, folk, grand, grave, gray, gray with age, gray-haired, gray-headed, grown old, hallowed, handed down, heavenly, held in esteem, heroic, highly esteemed, highly regarded, highly reputed, highly respectable, hoar, hoary, holy, honorable, honored, immemorial, imposing, impressive, in favor, in good odor, in high favor, ineffable, inenarrable, inexpressible, inveterate, inviolable, inviolate, kingly, legendary, long-established, long-standing, lordly, magisterial, majestic, meritorious, mythological, noble, numinous, of long standing, of old, of the folk, of yore, old, old as Methuselah, old as history, old as time, old-time, olden, oral, patriarchal, prescriptive, prestigious, princely, queenly, received, recognized, regal, religious, reputable, respectable, respected, revered, reverenced, reverend, reverential, rooted, royal, sacred, sacrosanct, sedate, senectuous, sober, solemn, spiritual, stately, statuesque, time-honored, timeless, timeworn, traditional, tried and true, true-blue, understood, unspeakable, untouchable, unutterable, unwritten, venerated, well-thought-of, white, white with age, white-bearded, white-crowned, white-haired, worshipful, worthy, wrinkled, wrinkly, years old

ROGET THESAURUS

venerable

Oldness

N oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, Sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law, old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contr, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam, old as history, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene, Quaternary, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent, since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah, vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.

Age

N age, oldness, old age, advanced age, golden years, senility, senescence, years, anility, gray hairs, climacteric, grand climacteric, declining years, decrepitude, hoary age, caducity, superannuation, second childhood, second childishness, dotage, vale of years, decline of life, sear and yellow leaf, threescore years and ten, green old age, ripe age, longevity, time of life, seniority, eldership, elders, firstling, doyen, father, primogeniture, geriatrics, nostology, aged, old, elderly, geriatric, senile, matronly, anile, in years, ripe, mellow, run to seed, declining, waning, past one's prime, gray, gray-headed, hoar, hoary, venerable, time-worn, antiquated, passe, effete, decrepit, superannuated, advanced in life, advanced in years, stricken in years, wrinkled, marked withthe crow's foot, having one foot in the grave, doting, like the last of pea time, older, elder, eldest, senior, firstborn, turned of, years old, of a certain age, no chicken, old as Methuselah, ancestral, patriarchal, gerontic, give me a staff of honor for my age, bis pueri senes, peu de gens savent elre vieux, plenus annis abiit plenus honoribus, old age is creeping on apace, slow-consuming age, the hoary head is a crown of glory, the silver livery of advised age, to grow old gracefully, to vanish in the chinks that Time has made.

Respect

N respect, regard, consideration, courtesy, attention, deference, reverence, honor, esteem, estimation, veneration, admiration, approbation, homage, fealty, obeisance, genuflection, kneeling prostration, obsequiousness, salaam, kowtow, bow, presenting arms, salute, respects, regards, duty, devoirs, egards, devotion, respecting, respectful, deferential, decorous, reverential, obsequious, ceremonious, bareheaded, cap in hand, on one's knees, prostrate, respected, in high esteem, in high estimation, time-honored, venerable, emeritus, in deference to, with all respect, with all due respect, with due respect, with the highest respect, with submission, saving your grace, saving your presence, salva sit reverentia, pace tanti nominis, Int, hail!, all hail!, esto perpetua!, may your shadow never be less!, and pluck up drowned honor by the locks, his honor rooted in dishonor stood, honor pricks me on.

Sage

N sage, wise man, genius, master mind, master spirit of the age, longhead, thinker, intellectual, longhair, authority, oracle, luminary, shining light, esprit fort, magnus Apollo, Solon, Solomon, Nestor, Magi, second Daniel, man of learning, expert, wizard, wiseacre, bigwig, know-it-all, poor man's Einstein, venerable, reverenced, emeritus, barba tenus sapientes.