occupancy

American  

[ok-yuh-puhn-see] / ˈɒk jə pən si /

noun

• occupancies
  plural

1. the act, state, or condition of being or becoming a tenant or of living in or taking up quarters or space in or on something.

   Continued occupancy of the office depends on a rent reduction.

   Synonyms:

   possession, occupation, tenancy

2. the possession or tenancy of a property.

   You can have occupancy on June 1st.

3. the act of taking possession, as of a property.

4. the term during which one is an occupant.

5. the condition of being occupied.

   Occupancy of the auditorium is limited to 1200 people.

6. the use to which property is put.

7. exercise of dominion over property that has no owner so as to become the legal owner.

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occupancy British  

/ ˈɒkjʊpənsɪ /

noun

1. the act of occupying; possession of a property

2. law the possession and use of property by or without agreement and without any claim to ownership

3. law the act of taking possession of unowned property, esp land, with the intent of thus acquiring ownership

4. the condition or fact of being an occupant, esp a tenant

5. the period of time during which one is an occupant, esp of property

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unoccupancy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• occupancies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of occupancy

First recorded in 1590–1600; occup(ant) + -ancy

Explanation

Occupancy is the act of owning, renting, or taking possession of a building. When you and your family move into a new house, you are taking occupancy of that home. You're probably most familiar with the word occupancy from signs in auditoriums and concert halls that state the room's "maximum occupancy." A maximum occupancy of 100 means only 100 people can safely fit inside that room at one time. A single-occupancy hotel room is meant for one person. The opposite of occupancy is vacancy––when no one is in possession. Hotels let you know when they have a vacancy by flashing a sign.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

occupancy occupancies

The video explainer referred to inspections only generally, and the state’s written guidance indicated only that this would need to happen before occupancy.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

For 2027, Carnival is already halfway booked, with both occupancy and pricing at record levels, according to Weinstein.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

The store was otherwise sustainable, but was forced to close “due to increasing occupancy expenses,” the company wrote in a social media post at the time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Data from StuRents suggests occupancy rates have fallen in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

It was in this manner that I discovered a room for immediate occupancy, in a house on a quiet street, the listing said, for eight dollars per week.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Net absorption, a measure of new occupancies minus new vacancies, fell to 3.5 million square feet in 2025, down from a pandemic-era high of 4.8 million in 2021, according to Newmark.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026

“But we’re running pretty weak occupancies right now,” he added.

From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026

She said much of the available accommodation is in "houses of multiple occupancies with shared amenities", but "this position is reflected nationally".

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2025

But hotel occupancies by business travelers are low in markets like Minneapolis, San Francisco and Houston.

From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2022

The notable scarcity of roofing timbers in the ruins can probably be explained by the hypothesis of successive occupancies and subsequent or repeated use of material difficult to obtain.

From The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-95, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 73-198 by Cosmos Mindeleff

Related Words

• ownership