vaguery

V4A1G2U1E1R1Y4
/ˈveɪɡəɹi/

noun

Vagueness, the condition of being vague.

Scrabble 14

Meanings

nounvaguery (countable and uncountable, plural vagueries)

plural vagueries

  1. uncountableVagueness, the condition of being vague.

    […] this badge of rivalry and intrusion, and of the vaguery and vacillation which restrain them through dread of danger.

    1859, New Exegesis of Shakespeare, pages 245–246
    4 more examples

    As a matter of fact, the particular breadth and vaguery of residual all-British consciousness decays more readily into racialism than into a defined, territorially restricted nationalism.

    1977 (first publication; republication in 2003), Tom Nairn, The Break-Up of Britain: crisis and neo-nationalism - Page 68

    The wording of diplomatic agreements and protocols is often deliberately designed either to soothe ruffled feathers — while pursuing an otherwise ruthless course — or to give assurance in sufficiently vague form that the vaguery might afterwards be exploited to diminish the effect of the assurances.

    1985, Stephen Chan, The Commonwealth Observer Group in Zimbabwe: a personal memoir, page 11

    There is a sharp and effective contrast between the incisiveness and energy of his speech and the vaguery and haziness he is attacking.

    1988, Kenneth Pickering, How to Study Modern Drama

    Incumbent on the quest for vaguery are frustration and unrequited desire; complete accessibility is inherently denied as part of its most basic definition.

    2003, Annette Fierro, The Glass State: the technology of the spectacle, Paris, 1981-1998, page 103
  2. countableA vagueness, a thing which is vague, an example of vagueness.
  3. countablein pluralmisspellingMisspelling of vagary.

    Yet whatever their faith in the importance of a politicized citizenry, the framers of the Indian Constitution left little to the vagueries of mass political participation.

    1983, Marvin Davis, Rank and Rivalry: the politics of inequality in rural West Bengal, page 191
    1 more example

    Some were indeed powerful men belonging to powerful families, exercising authority and influence, but the vagueries of colonial economic conditions made their holdings precarious.

    1980, Nicholas P. Cushner, Lords of the Land: sugar, wine, and Jesuit estates of coastal Peru, 1600-1767, page 14

Origin

From vague + -ery, perhaps influenced by vagary. Attested since at least the 1800s.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Sounds the same

Cite this entry
APA

vaguery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vaguery

MLA

“vaguery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vaguery. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vaguery,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vaguery.

Source: vaguery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.