Translation
or
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Examples
.
He will come either today or tomorrow.
.
Two or three soldiers were present.
.
Give me bread or water, whichever you like.
.
Even a boy understands this.
.
Even the very greatest king is mortal.
Latin has two words for "or" and the difference is real. "aut" separates alternatives that exclude each other, as in a genuine either-or. "vel" offers a choice where either would do, or where the speaker is simply reaching for a better word: it comes from "volo", to want, and its original sense is "take your pick". Doubled as "vel ... vel ..." it gives "either ... or ...", with the same relaxed flavour.
Placed in front of a single word, especially a superlative, it means "even": "vel maximus", even the greatest. In manuscripts and printed texts you will meet it abbreviated to a bare "u", since Latin wrote the same letter for u and v, which is why the corpus behind this list counts it as "uel".
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Latin · Free printables
vel: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "vel" (or): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
This word is taught in chapter 1, lesson 4: vel, ex, per and 11 more words.