void

[void]

adjective

1. Law.,  having no legal force or effect; not legally binding or enforceable.

2. useless; ineffectual; vain.

3. devoid; destitute (usually followed byof ).

   a life void of meaning.

4. without contents; empty.

5. without an incumbent, as an office.

   Synonyms: unoccupied, vacant

6. Mathematics.,  (of a set) containing no elements; empty.

7. (in cards) having no cards in a suit.

noun

1. an empty space; emptiness.

   He disappeared into the void.

   Synonyms: lack, absence, vacuum

2. something experienced as a loss or privation.

   His death left a great void in her life.

3. a gap or opening, as in a wall.

4. Typography.,  counter.

5. (in cards) lack of cards in a suit.

   a void in clubs.

verb (used with object)

1. to make ineffectual; invalidate; nullify.

   to void a check.

2. to empty; discharge; evacuate.

   to void excrement.

3. to clear or empty (often followed byof ).

   to void a chamber of occupants.

4. Archaic.,  to depart from; vacate.

verb (used without object)

1. to defecate or urinate.

void

/ vɔɪd /

adjective

1. without contents; empty

2. not legally binding

   null and void

3. (of an office, house, position, etc) without an incumbent; unoccupied

4. destitute or devoid

   void of resources

5. having no effect; useless

   all his efforts were rendered void

6. (of a card suit or player) having no cards in a particular suit

   his spades were void

noun

1. an empty space or area

   the huge desert voids of Asia

2. a feeling or condition of loneliness or deprivation

   his divorce left him in a void

3. a lack of any cards in one suit

   to have a void in spades

4. Also called: counter. the inside area of a character of type, such as the inside of an o

verb

1. to make ineffective or invalid

2. to empty (contents, etc) or make empty of contents

3. (also intr) to discharge the contents of (the bowels or urinary bladder)

4. archaic,  to vacate (a place, room, etc)

5. obsolete,  to expel

Other Word Forms

• voidness noun
• nonvoid adjective
• prevoid verb (used with object)
• unvoid adjective
• unvoidness noun
• voider noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of void¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; (adjective) Middle English voide, from Anglo-French, Old French voide, voit, vuide, vuit ( French vide ), from unattested Vulgar Latin vocīta, vocita feminine of vocītus, vocitus unattested and dissimilated variant of Latin vacīvus, vocīvus, “empty”; vacuum; (verb) Middle English voiden, from Anglo-French voider, Old French, from unattested Vulgar Latin vocitāre, derivative of unattested vocītus, vocitus; (noun) derivative of the adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of void¹

C13: from Old French vuide, from Vulgar Latin vocītus (unattested), from Latin vacuus empty, from vacāre to be empty

Idioms and Phrases

see null and void.

Synonym Study

See empty.

Example Sentences

The numbers help fill in a void left by missing federal economic stats delayed by the recent government shutdown.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"The decision further indicates that because the indictment is void, the statute of limitations has run and there can be no further indictment," attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said Monday.

Read more on BBC

“As one area of activity declines, another one fills the void,” Anagnost said.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Yet every time I sit down to write “The Bite,” it feels less like sending something out into the void and more like pulling up an extra chair to a table I’m lucky to share.

Read more on Salon

I’d agree with your premise if Japan leaves a void that no one else has an interest in filling.

Read more on MarketWatch

Related Words

• abrogate 
• annul 
• dissolve 
• invalidate 
• rescind 
• vacate