An artery carries blood away from the heart, while a vein carries blood back toward it. A simple memory hook: artery and away both start with a; veins are the ones you usually see, appearing bluish through the skin.
The core difference
The direction of blood flow is the core difference: arteries carry blood away from the heart, veins carry it back.
- artery — a blood vessel carrying blood away from the heart: A blocked artery can lead to a heart attack.
- vein — a blood vessel carrying blood back toward the heart: The nurse found a vein in his arm to draw blood.
- vein — figuratively, a streak or a running style or mood: His novels are all written in a darkly comic vein.
How to tell them apart
Both words stretch beyond anatomy. Artery also describes a major transport route, such as a busy road or rail line that carries heavy traffic, echoing how a blood artery carries a heavy flow. Vein has an even wider reach: it can describe a streak of colour running through marble, wood, or cheese, or a particular mood running through a piece of writing or conversation.
Both words trace back to older words for the same body part. Artery comes from Greek arteria, which originally meant windpipe as well as artery, while vein comes from Latin vena, the same root still used in the Latin names for specific veins.
