vacancy

American  

[vey-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

Etymology

Origin of vacancy

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

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

Locate the policy, confirm it is active, notify the insurer, update the named insured and check those vacancy rules, it adds.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

That is the lowest vacancy rate for any metro area other than that of New York and San Jose, Calif.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 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

It was far from ideal - and it served as a reminder for Iraola that he must appoint a vice-captain soon, with the vacancy open after Andy Robertson's departure.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

‘If the next vacancy happens to be Siberia,’ he said, ‘you’ll have to take it.’

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl

Jobs website Adzuna said it had just 8,383 graduate vacancies listed in July, down from 15,397 at the same point last year.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

“That relieves pressure on the market, and so we have seen vacancies go up, even though we’re not building”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

“It’s become very difficult to hire young people,” said Aman Navani, senior research and policy analyst at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, citing a 49% decline in starter-job vacancies over the last decade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Estimates for the May-July period show vacancies fell slightly to 707,000, which, outside of the pandemic period, were last lower in the three months through November 2014, the ONS said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 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

Related Words

• gap
• job
• vacuum
• void