--- title: "virtual Specifier | Microsoft Docs" ms.custom: "" ms.date: "11/04/2016" ms.reviewer: "" ms.suite: "" ms.technology: - "cpp-language" ms.tgt_pltfrm: "" ms.topic: "language-reference" f1_keywords: - "virtual" dev_langs: - "C++" helpviewer_keywords: - "function specifiers, virtual" - "virtual keyword [C++]" ms.assetid: 4f3dfdea-a6cb-499b-832d-e237b96062d0 caps.latest.revision: 9 author: "mikeblome" ms.author: "mblome" manager: "ghogen" translation.priority.ht: - "cs-cz" - "de-de" - "es-es" - "fr-fr" - "it-it" - "ja-jp" - "ko-kr" - "pl-pl" - "pt-br" - "ru-ru" - "tr-tr" - "zh-cn" - "zh-tw" --- # virtual Specifier The [virtual](../cpp/virtual-cpp.md) keyword can be applied only to nonstatic class member functions. It signifies that binding of calls to the function is deferred until run time. For more information, see [Virtual Functions](../cpp/virtual-functions.md).