Meaning & use
Viking
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Meaning
nouncountable
One of the Norse people from Scandinavia who sailed out in ships between about the eighth and eleventh centuries to raid, trade and settle in other lands.
Grammar: Always written with a capital V and used for the historical people: a Viking, the Vikings.
Patterns
- a Viking raid on somewhere
- Vikings settled in somewhere
Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic long before Columbus.
The museum has a Viking ship that was buried with its owner.
Many place names in northern England were given by Vikings who settled there.
Word forms
| plural | Vikings |
|---|
Common combinations
- Viking ship
- The Viking ship was shallow enough to travel far up rivers.
- Viking raid
- A Viking raid on the monastery shocked the whole region.
- Viking settlement
- Archaeologists found a Viking settlement on the coast of Newfoundland.
- Viking Age
- Silver coins from the Viking Age were found in the field.
- Viking warrior
- The grave held the remains of a Viking warrior and his sword.
Synonyms and how they differ
- Norseman
- Norseman refers to any person of medieval Scandinavian origin, while Viking points specifically to those who went overseas as raiders, traders or settlers.
- Northman
- Northman is an older, more literary term used in history books for Scandinavian raiders, and it sounds less familiar than Viking.
- Dane
- Dane in older English often meant any Viking raider, though it strictly refers to someone from Denmark and not Norway or Sweden.
Word family
Commonly confused: Viking or Norse?
Viking vs Norse
Norse is a wider word for the whole culture and language of early Scandinavia, so not every Norse person was a Viking, only those who went raiding or voyaging.
Practice
Which sentence uses Viking correctly?
Choose one answer.
Viking is capitalized and names the historical seafarers of early medieval Scandinavia; it does not describe modern people, a verb or a food.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Viking”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.