vaporous

[ vey-per-uhs ]

adjective

1. having the form or characteristics of vapor:

   a vaporous cloud.

2. full of or abounding in vapor; foggy; misty:

   a vaporous twilight.

3. producing or giving off vapor:

   a vaporous bog.

4. dimmed or obscured with vapor:

   a low valley surrounded by vaporous mountains.

5. unsubstantial; diaphanous; airy:

   vaporous fabrics; vaporous breezes.

6. vaguely formed, fanciful, or unreliable:

   vaporous promises.

vaporous

/ ˈveɪpərəs; ˌveɪpəˈrɒsɪtɪ /

adjective

1. resembling or full of vapour
2. another word for vaporific
3. lacking permanence or substance; ephemeral or fanciful
4. given to foolish imaginings
5. dulled or obscured by an atmosphere of vapour

Derived Forms

• ˈvaporously, adverb
• ˈvaporousness, noun

Other Words From

• vapor·ous·ly adverb
• vapor·ous·ness va·por·os·i·ty [vey-p, uh, -, ros, -i-tee], noun
• nonva·por·osi·ty noun
• non·vapor·ous adjective
• non·vapor·ous·ly adverb
• non·vapor·ous·ness noun
• unva·por·osi·ty noun
• un·vapor·ous adjective
• un·vapor·ous·ly adverb
• un·vapor·ous·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of vaporous¹

First recorded in 1520–30; vapor + -ous

Example Sentences

Loftus regarded so-called recovered memories as concoctions “spun not from solid facts but from the vaporous breezes of wishes, dreams, fears, desires.”

From Los Angeles Times

Hope needed a name and a shape, and what followed was anything but vaporous feelings.

From Slate

"We let the biology do the harder job of converting information about vaporous chemicals into an electrical neural signal," Raman said.

From Science Daily

But the heroine of “Coppelia” isn’t anything like the unattainable sylph of “La Sylphide” or the vaporous Wili of “Giselle.”

From New York Times

Both photographs reveal an almost football-shaped cloud of smooth, vaporous material wrapped in sharper, wispy multicolored tendrils.

From Scientific American