vast

American  

[vast] / væst /

adjective

vaster, vastest

1. of very great area or extent; immense.

   the vast reaches of outer space.

   Synonyms:

   stupendous, colossal, gigantic, boundless, measureless

   Antonyms:

   small

2. of very great size or proportions; huge; enormous.

   vast piles of rubble left in the wake of the war.

3. very great in number, quantity, amount, etc..

   vast sums of money.

4. very great in degree, intensity, etc..

   an artisan of vast skill.

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noun

1. Literary. an immense or boundless expanse or space.

vast British  

/ vɑːst /

adjective

1. unusually large in size, extent, degree, or number; immense

2. (prenominal) (intensifier)

   in vast haste

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noun

1. poetic immense or boundless space

2. dialect a very great amount or number

Other Word Forms

• supervast adjective
• vastity noun
• vastly adverb
• vastness noun

Etymology

Origin of vast

First recorded in 1565–75, from Latin vastus “empty, immense”

Explanation

If you’re in a boat out on the water and you can’t see any land, then the body of water you’re in is probably vast, or enormous. Things that are described as vast include oceans, seas, the heavens, deserts, and the surface of the moon. Even places that can't be seen or touched, like imaginations, are called vast, because of the endless ideas that come out of them. Someone with a vast imagination is very creative, and a place with a vast landscape is very large. Possibilities are vast, and so are the vocabularies of the world, filling vast volumes.

Example Sentences

Much of the U.S. refining system is configured to run heavier crude like the type that comes from Canada, which exports the vast majority of its oil to the U.S.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 29, 2026

Along the way, the filing said, Allen recorded his appreciation for the changing landscapes, for example writing on his phone that Pennsylvania's woods resembled "vast fairy lands filled with tiny trickling creeks."

From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026

When Allende watched the show, she was struck by the landscapes of the country — the vast desert, verdant forests and farmland, snowcapped peaks — its authenticity and flavor.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026

Yet his men explored a vast expanse of the American interior.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026

And yet, when he’d caught sight of the cliffs from the scree slope, they’d seemed just a wrinkle in the vast, tumbled river of ice.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

Related Words

• ample
• big
• boundless
• broad
• colossal
• endless
• enormous
• extensive
• far-flung
• far-reaching
• gigantic
• great
• huge
• immense
• infinite
• limitless
• mammoth
• massive
• monumental
• spacious