void

American  

[void] / vɔɪd /

adjective

1. Law. having no legal force or effect; not legally binding or enforceable.

2. useless; ineffectual; vain.

3. devoid; destitute (usually followed byof ).

   a life void of meaning.

4. without contents; empty.

5. without an incumbent, as an office.

   Synonyms:

   unoccupied, vacant

6. Mathematics. (of a set) containing no elements; empty.

7. (in cards) having no cards in a suit.

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noun

1. an empty space; emptiness.

   He disappeared into the void.

   Synonyms:

   lack, absence, vacuum

2. something experienced as a loss or privation.

   His death left a great void in her life.

3. a gap or opening, as in a wall.

4. Typography. counter.

5. (in cards) lack of cards in a suit.

   a void in clubs.

verb (used with object)

voids, present (3rd person singular) voided, past participle, past voiding present participle

1. to make ineffectual; invalidate; nullify.

   to void a check.

2. to empty; discharge; evacuate.

   to void excrement.

3. to clear or empty (often followed byof ).

   to void a chamber of occupants.

4. Archaic. to depart from; vacate.

verb (used without object)

voids, present (3rd person singular) voided, past participle, past voiding present participle

1. to defecate or urinate.

void British  

/ vɔɪd /

adjective

1. without contents; empty

2. not legally binding

   null and void

3. (of an office, house, position, etc) without an incumbent; unoccupied

4. destitute or devoid

   void of resources

5. having no effect; useless

   all his efforts were rendered void

6. (of a card suit or player) having no cards in a particular suit

   his spades were void

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noun

1. an empty space or area

   the huge desert voids of Asia

2. a feeling or condition of loneliness or deprivation

   his divorce left him in a void

3. a lack of any cards in one suit

   to have a void in spades

4. Also called: counter.  the inside area of a character of type, such as the inside of an o

verb

1. to make ineffective or invalid

2. to empty (contents, etc) or make empty of contents

3. (also intr) to discharge the contents of (the bowels or urinary bladder)

4. archaic to vacate (a place, room, etc)

5. obsolete to expel

void Idioms  

1. see null and void.

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Synonym Usage

See empty.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• voider
  noun
• voidness
  noun
• unvoid
  adjective
• nonvoid
  adjective
• unvoidness
  noun
• prevoid
  verb (used with object)

Conjugated Forms

Present

• have voided
  perfect
• has voided
  perfect 3rd person singular
• are voiding
  progressive
• has been voiding
  perfect progressive 3rd person singular
• voids
  singular 3rd person
• voiding
  participle
• am voiding
  progressive 1st person singular
• is voiding
  progressive 3rd person singular
• have been voiding
  perfect progressive

Past

• had voided
  perfect
• was voiding
  progressive singular
• had been voiding
  perfect progressive
• voided
  simple
• voided
  participle
• were voiding
  progressive plural

Future

• will void
  simple
• will have voided
  perfect
• will be voiding
  progressive
• will have been voiding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of void

First recorded in 1250–1300; (adjective) Middle English voide, from Anglo-French, Old French voide, voit, vuide, vuit ( French vide ), from unattested Vulgar Latin vocīta, vocita feminine of vocītus, vocitus unattested and dissimilated variant of Latin vacīvus, vocīvus, “empty”; see vacuum; (verb) Middle English voiden, from Anglo-French voider, Old French, from unattested Vulgar Latin vocitāre, derivative of unattested vocītus, vocitus; (noun) derivative of the adjective

Explanation

A void is empty space, nothingness, zero, zilch. A place that's void of all life forms has no sign of animals, plants, or people. You may recognize void from the Old Testament passage describing creation: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep." In other words, nothing was there: pure emptiness. When you void something or make it void, you make it legally invalid, and that kind of void often goes with null. You might tell Cinderella, "If you're not back by midnight, that arrangement with the pumpkin and the mice is null and void."

Example Sentences

The Alphabet offering fills a void because the common stock yields so little.

From Barron's • Jun. 2, 2026

We’ve become so enamored by this void that we inadvertently trapped ourselves inside of it, mourning the past that slipped away before we had a chance to say goodbye.

From Salon • May 30, 2026

Gifting the stocks to her children during her lifetime would void that step-up in basis.

From MarketWatch • May 28, 2026

As those jobs disappeared, lower-skill cubicle gigs helped fill the void.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026

So what if my playlist had disappeared into the void?

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

Related Words

• abrogate
• annul
• dissolve
• invalidate
• rescind
• vacate