These three vales are:
- Valediction: the action of saying farewell.
- Valetudinarian: a person who is unduly anxious about their health.
- Valedictorian: a student, typically having the highest academic achievements of the class, who delivers the valedictory at a graduation ceremony.
Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between these three words, which look too much alike. Also one never has a chance to use them. Who will use valediction? Even farewell is a word too formal for daily use, let alone valediction.
Also I’ve never heard anybody using valetudinarian. I heard people use hypochondriac twice in conversation, which is a synonym I think to valetudinarian. I wonder what the difference is between the two words. Probably one is more anxious than the other. Or probably each is anxious in different ways. LOL.
Let me know if you’ve ever used or heard people using these three words.
Haoyan Do 
Valediction is quite in use and Valedictorian a wee bit but never heard of valetudinarian! Way out!!🙄😁
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Yes, I guess the usage of every word is up and down in popularity. LOL.
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I have never use valetudinarian but I think hypochondria is where the person actually believes they have a disease or diseases and even exhibit symptoms of it because they believe they have it. It’s a mental illness.
When I looked up valediction in Merriam-Webster dictionary they had a couple of modern examples of it in use but I haven’t used it or seen it used. The prefix “vale” means saying goodbye.
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It sounds like valetudinarian is still within the normal spectrum while hypochondria is overboard on mental sanity. LOL. I’ve never seen valediction being used either. And vale means bye? LOL. That’s so cool. It makes sense that valediction should be farewell.
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Valedictorian in high school and college, yes. The others, not so much, but I am going to use those words more often 😛
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Yes, among the three, I only heard valedictorian once or twice. Not the other two. LOL😊😉😜
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To be fair, there are plenty of English words in existence that are hardly ever in use. For that matter, there are some English words that change with connotation over time.
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Yes, connotation is something of a shock to me in the beginning. For example, you can’t say a bad person is famous. You have to say this person is infamous or notorious. A word doesn’t only come with its meaning, but also its connotation hidden behind. LOL. Many other languages are more relaxed and flexible in this aspect.
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English is weird language anyways.
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Yes, English is weird and one (non-native speakers) often feels that English has several rule systems working at the same time, often against each other.
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Same with native speakers, but it also depends on education level as well.
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Valedictorian i have heard. Not the other two.
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Me too. Wonder if people still use them, but obviously there are people who know them. Live and learn. 😜😉😊
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Sure. Cheers!
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