# vagrant

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈveɪɡɹənt/ · frequency rank #39,151

## Definitions
1. A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
2. A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.
3. Vagrans egista, a widely distributed Asian butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.
4. An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.

## Etymology
From Late Middle English vagraunt (“person without proper employment; person without a fixed abode, tramp, vagabond”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant (“vagrant”) [and other forms] and Old French walcrant, waucrant (“roaming, wandering”) [and other forms], perhaps influenced by Latin vagārī, the present active infinitive of vagor (“to ramble, stroll about; to roam, rove, wander”). Old French walcrant is the present participle of vagrer, wacrer, walcrer (“to wander, wander about as a vagabond”) [and other forms], from Frankish *walkrōn (“to wander about”), the frequentative form of *walkōn (“to walk; to wander; to stomp, trample; to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing)”), from Proto-Germanic *walkōną (“to roll about, wallow; to full”), *walkaną (“to turn, wind; to toss; to roll, roll about; to wend; to walk; to wander; to trample; to full”),
from Proto-Indo-European *walg-, *walk-, *welgʰ-, *welk-, *wolg- (“to turn, twist; to move”), ultimately from *welH- (“to turn; to wind”).
The English word is cognate with Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Middle Dutch walken (“to knead; to full”), Old English wealcan (“to roll”), ġewealcan (“to go; to walk about”), Old High German walchan, walkan (“to move up and down; to press together; to full; to walk; to wander”), Old Norse valka (“to wander”). See further at walk.

## Easily confused with
- **variant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/vagrant-vs-variant)
- **vibrant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/vagrant-vs-vibrant)
- **valiant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/vagrant-vs-valiant)
- **vacant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/vacant-vs-vagrant)

## Common misspellings (11)
`avgrant`, `vagarnt`, `vaggrant`, `vagrannt`, `vagrantt`, `vagratn`, `vagrnat`, `vagrrant`, `vargant`, `vgarant`, `vvagrant`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/vagrant