English

Alternative forms

• viz., vid., videl.

Adverb

videlicet ‎(not comparable)

1. Namely, to wit, that is to say (used when clarifying or naming the preceding item or topic)
   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:

     My father did speak much of the day he was not speedily to forget, videlicet May Day of 1517, when there was great apprentice rioting against insolent foreigners.

Usage notes

Where videlicet is carefully distinguished from scilicet, viz. is used to provide glosses and sc. to provide omitted words or parenthetic clarification.

Synonyms

• See namely

Latin

Etymology

A contraction of videre licet ‎(“[it] is permitted to see”).^[1] Cf. scilicet.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /wiˈdeː.li.ket/, [wɪˈdeː.lɪ.kɛt]

Adverb

videlicet ‎(not comparable)

1. Videlicet: namely, to wit, that is to say
   • c. '1300', Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris

     Per Ordinacionem tocius regni Anglie fuit mensura Domini Regis composita videlicet quod denarius qui vocatur sterlingus rotundus & sine tonsura ponderabit triginta duo grana frumenti in medio Spice.

2. clearly, evidently

References

• videlicet in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• videlicet in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “videlicet”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.

1. ↑ American Heritage Dictionary, 5th ed. "vi·del·i·cet". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.