vacancy

American  

[vay-kuhn-see] / ˈveɪ kən si /

noun

• vacancies
  plural

1. the state of being vacant; emptiness.

2. a vacant, empty, or unoccupied place, as untenanted lodgings or offices.

   This building still has no vacancies.

3. a gap; opening; breach.

4. an unoccupied position or office.

   a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

5. lack of thought or intelligence; vacuity.

   a look of utter vacancy.

6. Crystallography. (in a crystal) an imperfection resulting from an unoccupied lattice position.

7. Archaic. absence of activity; idleness.

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vacancy British  

/ ˈveɪkənsɪ /

noun

1. the state or condition of being vacant or unoccupied; emptiness

2. an unoccupied post or office

   we have a vacancy in the accounts department

3. an unoccupied room in a boarding house, hotel, etc

   put the "No Vacancies" sign in the window

4. lack of thought or intelligent awareness; inanity

   an expression of vacancy on one's face

5. physics a defect in a crystalline solid caused by the absence of an atom, ion, or molecule from its position in the crystal lattice

6. obsolete idleness or a period spent in idleness

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonvacancy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• vacancies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of vacancy

From the Medieval Latin word vacantia, dating back to 1570–80. See vacant, -ancy

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Explanation

Vacancy refers to something being unoccupied. If a hotel has vacancies, there are rooms available. Have you ever noticed a store that's boarded up and empty, with signs like "For sale" or "For rent"? That's an example of vacancy: the store has no one in it. An unrented apartment is a vacancy, as is a house with no one living in it. Hotels put up a sign saying "No vacancies" when they have every room filled. It could help you remember what vacancy means if you know that a vacant lot is an empty lot.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vacancy vacancies

Rents have grown faster than inflation, and the vacancy rate has fallen by 30%.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

Congress repealed that law in 1802, before a vacancy arose, and reset the number of justices to six.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

Buettell, the deputy chief executive, told The Times that the county does not have the power to terminate Curtis’ employment because he was appointed to fill a vacancy in an elected position.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

In 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Becerra as state attorney general to fill the vacancy left by Kamala Harris’ election to the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

They fenced them off, boarded them up, and some even hired security firms to walk around the perimeter and make sure no one was looking to survive on corporate-sponsored vacancy.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

According to Amisha, the company applied for only a handful of vacancies advertised on job-search website Indeed.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

Last year alone, there were 10 vacancies, and after the season ended on Jan. 4, eight were filled by the end of the month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

While the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9%, the number of vacancies and employees on payrolls fell in recent months.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

During the offseason, several teams interviewed Scheelhaase for head coaching vacancies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

“I ought, but I don’t,” thought Amy, as her eye went from the bright page to May’s discontented face behind the big vases, that could not hide the vacancies her pretty work had once filled.

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

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Related Words

• gap
• job
• vacuum
• void

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