cavernous

[kav-er-nuhs]

adjective

1. being, resembling, or suggestive of a cavern.

   a vast, cavernous room.

2. deep-set.

   cavernous eyes.

3. hollow and deep-sounding.

   a cavernous voice.

4. containing caverns.

5. full of small cavities; porous.

cavernous

/ ˈkævənəs /

adjective

1. suggestive of a cavern in vastness, darkness, etc

   cavernous hungry eyes

2. filled with small cavities; porous

3. (of rocks) containing caverns or cavities

Other Word Forms

• cavernously adverb
• intercavernous adjective
• uncavernous adjective
• uncavernously adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of cavernous¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Latin word cavernōsus. See cavern, -ous

Example Sentences

The clubby Lloyd’s market connects thousands of buyers and sellers of risks daily, with deals struck in a cavernous underwriting room or the nearby bars, thronged by underwriters and brokers every lunchtime.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In between the tribute bands and memorabilia vendors, one of the big attractions was screenings of various rare or bootleg film footage, screened in cavernous hotel ballrooms.

Read more on Salon

Now, lying thick and still under the cover of plastic seats, the cavernous emptiness of the place mirrors the void left since it is modern reincarnation in the late 1990s.

Read more on BBC

Faith Dunn, clad in a green tracksuit, entered the cavernous room full of bunk beds with hundreds of contestants in the highly competitive second season of “Squid Game: The Challenge.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He’d been a more than congenial host, showing this writer around the cavernous space where a group of what looked like teenagers with laptops were composing the landscapes of the film’s fictional world Pandora.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• gaping 
• huge 
• roomy 
• spacious 
• vast 
• yawning