veterinary
/ˈvɛtɪnɹi/adjective, noun
veterinary is spelled V-E-T-E-R-I-N-A-R-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is vetinary: about 440 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 20 of all searches for the word. Veterinary is an adjective meaning “Of or relating to the medical or surgical treatment of non-human animals, especially domestic and farm animals”.
How many letters and syllables are in veterinary?
| Letters | 10: V-E-T-E-R-I-N-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.6 times per million words; the 10,358th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, vetinary, about 440 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell veterinary?
Veterinary is spelled V-E-T-E-R-I-N-A-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 20 of the searches for veterinary in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is veterinary?
Veterinary appears 5.6 times per million words in written English, the 10,358th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce veterinary?
- UK /ˈvɛtɪnɹi/
- UK /ˈvɛtɹɪnɹi/
- UK /vɛtɪnɛɹi/
Veterinary has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-veterinary.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of veterinary
- more veterinary comparative
- most veterinary superlative
- veterinaries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does veterinary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of or relating to the medical or surgical treatment of non-human animals, especially domestic and farm animals.
Max used all his veterinary knowledge to save the goose stuck in the fence.
noun
- 1
A veterinary surgeon; a veterinarian.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Veterinary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of or relating to the medical treatment of animals:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vétérinaire |
| Portuguese | veterinário |
| Spanish | veterinario |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does veterinary come from?
From Latin veterīnārius, from veterīnus and veterīnae (“cattle;"beasts of burden/of draught"”); compare with veterinarian.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).