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

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

Wind gusts over the sea between Iceland and the Faroe Islands could exceed 110mph but nothing this severe is expected in the vicinity of the UK.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 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

The gasoline generator that lights up the palace makes such a horrid bellowing, day and night, that all the monkeys have fled the vicinity.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said that 116 Ukrainians had been released — including “defenders of Mariupol, Kherson partisans, snipers from Bakhmut vicinities, and other heroes.”

From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2023

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 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

It was always a luxury with Southey to talk of old times, places, and persons; and Bristol, with its vicinities, he thought the most beautiful city he had ever seen.

From Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey by Joseph Cottle

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Related Words

• environs
• neighborhood
• proximity

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