vicinity

[vi-sin-i-tee]

noun

plural

vicinities 

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.

vicinity

/ vɪˈsɪnɪtɪ /

noun

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of vicinity¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of vicinity¹

C16: from Latin vīcīnitās, from vīcīnus neighbouring, from vīcus village

Example Sentences

RTK works fine as long as the user is in the vicinity of one of these stations.

Read more on Science Daily

“If someone got murdered in my vicinity and they picked this book up, they’d probably just put me in jail,” he says, “just in case.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Any outdoor Ring cameras in the vicinity that spot your dog will alert those camera owners.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

His playing partner Shane Lowry then drained a hole-winning eagle putt and wildly celebrated, animatedly pointing and shouting an expletive in the vicinity of where the original abuse had come from.

Read more on BBC

Attendee Lien Nguyen, whose love for the kittens overrode her cat allergy, admitted she’d drop her book the second a cat came into her vicinity.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• environs 
• neighborhood 
• proximity