vicinity

American  

[vi-sin-i-tee] / vɪˈsɪn ɪ ti /

noun

• vicinities
  plural

1. the area or region near or about a place; surrounding district; neighborhood.

   There are no stores in the vicinity of our house.

2. state or fact of being near; proximity; propinquity.

   He was troubled by the vicinity of the nuclear testing area.

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vicinity British  

/ vɪˈsɪnɪtɪ /

noun

1. a surrounding, adjacent, or nearby area; neighbourhood

2. the fact or condition of being close in space or relationship

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• vicinities
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of vicinity

1550–60; < Latin vīcīnitās, equivalent to vīcīn ( us ) near ( vīc ( us ) wick ³, neighborhood + -īnus -ine ¹ ) + -itās -ity

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Explanation

If something is in your vicinity, it's in the surrounding area or nearby region — it's in the neighborhood, so to speak. If there's a garbage dump in your vicinity, you'll certainly smell it. The noun vicinity evolved from the Latin vicinitas, which means “of or pertaining to neighbors or a neighborhood.” Not until 1796 did the word expand in meaning to also describe a “surrounding district.” Said American author Washington Irving, “A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.” Slang for vicinity include neck of the woods and turf.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vicinity vicinities

Four drones made it to the vicinity of the target.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

A warning system would have offered little help for ships in the immediate vicinity, but it could have provided perhaps 10 minutes of warning for those who rode out the harrowing tsunami farther away.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

In November 2025, regulators issued violations to contractors there for using equipment during a pipeline pressure test that is prohibited within 1,000 feet of a school, of which there are three in the immediate vicinity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

The acting head of the SBU, Oleksandr Poklad, was not in the vicinity at the time of the attack, a senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026

Forest fires occur frequently in the vicinity and produce charcoal that is regularly swept into caves by wind and streams.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

The team also prepared training sessions and webinars available to schools to help them identify potential hazards in their vicinities and structural weaknesses in their buildings.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 31, 2021

The answer was that all of Lion Air’s accidents happened during takeoffs and landings and therefore at relatively low speed, either on runways or in their immediate obstacle-free vicinities.

From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2019

The community is virtually invisible, with most people working in meat-producing factories in the vicinities while those in town keep an extremely low profile.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 7, 2018

Dr Schlegel may thus have found a mechanism by which black holes can switch off star formation in their vicinities.

From Economist ● Jan. 7, 2016

These three mountains, with their vicinities are enshrined in Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake; and the village of Balquidder, at the foot of Ben Ledy, is the burial place of Rob Roy.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 20, No. 581, December 15, 1832 by Various

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Related Words

• environs
• neighborhood
• proximity

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