cavity
Americannoun
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cavities
plural
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any hollow place; hollow.
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Anatomy. a hollow space within the body, an organ, a bone, etc.
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a hollow space or a pit in a tooth, most commonly produced by caries. A cavity may be artificially made to support dental restorations.
noun
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a hollow space; hole
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dentistry a soft decayed area on a tooth See caries
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any empty or hollow space within the body
the oral cavity
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electronics See cavity resonator
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A hollow; a hole.
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A hollow area within the body.
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A pitted area in a tooth caused by caries.
Usage
What is a cavity? A cavity is a pit or hole in a tooth caused by the decay of the enamel and bone, such as you might get if you don’t brush your teeth regularly. A cavity is more generally any hollow place or crater, as in When the old building was torn down, all that was left was a huge cavity in the ground. A cavity is also any other hole, divet, or pit in the body, such as the spinal cavity, which surrounds your spinal cord. Example: That cavity in your molar is probably from all the soda you drink.
Synonym Usage
See hole.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cavity
First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French cavite from Late Latin cavitās “hollowness,” equivalent to Latin cav(us) “hollow” + -itās -ity
Explanation
A cavity is a carved-out space inside something solid like a wall or a tooth. If you have a cavity, you have a hole in your tooth, and it’s time to go to the dentist for a filling. Lucky you. Doctors sometimes refer to various internal body parts as cavities, such as the "abdominal cavity," which includes the stomach and other hollow parts of the abdomen. You are more likely to hear the word at the dentist’s office, when she finds a cavity, which is a space in your tooth that's been eaten away by decay. Fun! (Not.) Cavity shares the Latin root cavus, "hollow," with the word cave.
Vocabulary lists containing cavity
There's No There There: Synonyms for "Empty"
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Sounder
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And Then, Boom!
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As the light repeatedly reflected through the cavity more than 10,000 times, its intensity increased dramatically while the beam became focused into an extremely small spot.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026
“All the cavity nesters; all the nesters that rob the cavity nesters. Everyone is living in there. All of that is lost in one fell swoop. It’s a sort of strip mining.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
The scans allowed them to build a three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull fragment, along with a model of its internal cavity.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
A mass was found in Jake's nose and nasal cavity and he was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
It seems Mr. McCracken now spends most of his time welding cast-iron contraptions late into the night, as if he were drilling into the cavity of the gaping monstrosity that is his garage.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
These microorganisms feed on sugars from food and drinks, producing acids that gradually weaken tooth enamel and contribute to cavities.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026
This is particularly important because acids produced by oral bacteria can gradually erode tooth enamel, increasing the risk of cavities.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026
When Pioneer created samples, cavities intended to hold game accessories didn’t form, came out too thin or didn’t have the required depth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Those safe havens come in the form of nest boxes, specially designed to resemble the tree cavities barn owls nest in that are disappearing from our countryside.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The meals are ambitious: poached fish; creamy potato gratins; golden, puffed chickens roasted with whole lemons in their cavities.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
