itinerant

adjective

itin·​er·​ant ī-ˈti-nə-rənt 

: traveling from place to place

especially : covering a circuit

itinerant preacher

itinerant noun

itinerantly adverb

Did you know?

In Latin, iter means "way" or "journey." That root was the parent of the Late Latin verb itinerari, meaning "to journey." It was that verb which ultimately gave rise to the English word for traveling types: itinerant. The linguistic grandparent, iter, also contributed to the development of other English words, including itinerary ("the route of a journey" and "the plan made for a journey") and errant ("traveling or given to traveling," as in knight-errant).

Synonyms

• ambulant
• ambulatory
• errant
• fugitive
• gallivanting
• galavanting
• nomad
• nomadic
• perambulatory
• peregrine
• peripatetic
• ranging
• roaming
• roving
• vagabond
• vagrant
• wandering
• wayfaring

Examples of itinerant in a Sentence

an itinerant musician can see a lot of the world

Recent Examples on the Web

Reports of the itinerant dolphin soon attracted the attention of marine biologists who wanted to understand why a dolphin would choose to make such a place his home. —Grrlscientist, Forbes, 25 Nov. 2024

Greenwald is an itinerant, old-school muckraker, working with small crews, sometimes only himself, to tell stories of oppression and threats to democracy from those who often are not heard. —Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2024

Popular on Variety Aside from the Summit, francophonie was also feted as part of an itinerant festival held in different cities through France, notably at the Gaîté Lyrique theater in Paris, where performances, conferences and debates, film screenings and concerts were hosted. —Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 9 Oct. 2024

But the wandering tone and itinerant plot used here don’t seem to suggest a lack of vision so as much as a genuine endeavor to capture how complicated some psychological challenges can be. —Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 12 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Late Latin itinerant-, itinerans, present participle of itinerari to journey, from Latin itiner-, iter journey, way; akin to Hittite itar way, Latin ire to go — more at issue entry 1

First Known Use

circa 1576, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

itinerant

adjective

itin·​er·​ant ī-ˈtin-ə-rənt 

ə-ˈtin-

: traveling from place to place

an itinerant preacher