vacancy

[ vey-kuhn-see ]
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noun,plural va·can·cies.
  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.

  1. a gap; opening; breach.

  2. an unoccupied position or office: a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

  3. lack of thought or intelligence; vacuity: a look of utter vacancy.

  4. Crystallography. (in a crystal) an imperfection resulting from an unoccupied lattice position.: Compare interstitial (def. 3).

  5. Archaic. absence of activity; idleness.

Origin of vacancy

1
From the Medieval Latin word vacantia, dating back to 1570–80. See vacant, -ancy

Other words from vacancy

  • non·va·can·cy, noun, plural non·va·can·cies.

Words Nearby vacancy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use vacancy in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for vacancy

vacancy

/ (ˈveɪkənsɪ) /


nounplural -cies
  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

  1. an unoccupied room in a boarding house, hotel, etc: put the "No Vacancies" sign in the window

  2. lack of thought or intelligent awareness; inanity: an expression of vacancy on one's face

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

  4. obsolete idleness or a period spent in idleness

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012