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say it: VET-ur-uhn
veteran is a noun and adjective meaning "a serviceman who has seen considerable active service". It carries 4 recorded senses.
a serviceman who has seen considerable active service
“the veterans laughed at the new recruits”
a person who has served in the armed forces
rendered competent through trial and experience
“a seasoned traveler”
“veteran steadiness”
“a veteran officer”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for veteran come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.