Word
caveat
US/ˈkeɪviˌæt/
UK/kˈævɪˌæt/
Definitions
01a warning or condition
n. a warning or a special condition that you should keep in mind.
n. a warning or proviso of specific stipulations, conditions, or limitations.
“The offer sounds great, but there is one major caveat: you must pay the full amount today.”
“The researcher accepted the findings with the caveat that the sample size was too small to be truly representative of the population.”
Formal · Academic
Usage
Often used with the preposition 'that' followed by a clause, or 'with the caveat'.
02legal objection
n. a formal notice to a court to stop a process from moving forward.
n. a formal notice filed by an interested party with a court or officer to suspend a proceeding until the filer is given a hearing.
“His lawyers filed a caveat to prevent the will from being processed.”
“The probate process was halted after a distant relative entered a caveat against the estate.”
Technical · Formal
Usage
Commonly used with the verbs 'file', 'enter', or 'lodge'.
Synonyms
03to add a condition
v. to add a warning or a limit to what you are saying.
v. to qualify a statement or agreement by adding specific conditions or warnings.
“I should caveat my recommendation by saying I haven't used the product myself.”
“The minister was careful to caveat her support for the project, noting that funding was not yet guaranteed.”
Academic · Formal
Usage
This is a transitive verb that takes a direct object, often the statement being qualified.
Teaching tip
While traditionally a noun, the use of 'caveat' as a verb is increasingly common in professional and academic contexts.
Real-World Examples
“The evidence of Sunday, with all due caveats about the stage of the season, is that this may be a very bad time for Maresca to have replaced Guardiola.” “It offers probabilities, warnings, caveats and arguments between experts who weigh the same clues differently.” Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin caveat (“may he/she/it beware”), third-person singular present active subjunctive of caveō (“I beware of”). Doublet of show, both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (“to heed, look, feel, take note of”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/caveat