void
Americanadjective
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Law. having no legal force or effect; not legally binding or enforceable.
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devoid; destitute (usually followed byof ).
a life void of meaning.
-
without contents; empty.
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without an incumbent, as an office.
- Synonyms:
- unoccupied, vacant
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Mathematics. (of a set) containing no elements; empty.
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(in cards) having no cards in a suit.
noun
verb (used with object)
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to make ineffectual; invalidate; nullify.
to void a check.
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to empty; discharge; evacuate.
to void excrement.
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to clear or empty (often followed byof ).
to void a chamber of occupants.
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Archaic. to depart from; vacate.
verb (used without object)
adjective
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without contents; empty
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not legally binding
null and void
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(of an office, house, position, etc) without an incumbent; unoccupied
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destitute or devoid
void of resources
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having no effect; useless
all his efforts were rendered void
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(of a card suit or player) having no cards in a particular suit
his spades were void
noun
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an empty space or area
the huge desert voids of Asia
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a feeling or condition of loneliness or deprivation
his divorce left him in a void
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a lack of any cards in one suit
to have a void in spades
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Also called: counter. the inside area of a character of type, such as the inside of an o
verb
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to make ineffective or invalid
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to empty (contents, etc) or make empty of contents
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(also intr) to discharge the contents of (the bowels or urinary bladder)
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archaic to vacate (a place, room, etc)
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obsolete to expel
Synonym Usage
See empty.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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unvoidnessnoun
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voidernoun
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voidnessnoun
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prevoidverb (used with object)
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nonvoidadjective
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unvoidadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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voidsimple
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voidssimple
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have voidedperfect
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has voidedperfect
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am voidingprogressive
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are voidingprogressive
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is voidingprogressive
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have been voidingperfect progressive
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has been voidingperfect progressive
Past
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voidedsimple
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had voidedperfect
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was voidingprogressive
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were voidingprogressive
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had been voidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of void
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”; see 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
Explanation
A void is empty space, nothingness, zero, zilch. A place that's void of all life forms has no sign of animals, plants, or people. You may recognize void from the Old Testament passage describing creation: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep." In other words, nothing was there: pure emptiness. When you void something or make it void, you make it legally invalid, and that kind of void often goes with null. You might tell Cinderella, "If you're not back by midnight, that arrangement with the pumpkin and the mice is null and void."
Vocabulary lists containing void
Zilch, Zip, Nada: Words For Nothing
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
ACT Vocabulary List
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Nobody's Home: Synonyms For "Absent"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Our seas are not an empty void or a buffer zone between global powers -- they are our estate, our livelihood, and our identity as stewards of the sea."
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Dead money is an even worse problem when contracts have void years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
"I could only find information for parents of autistic kids. There was just an absolute void of information."
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
He managed to survive in the shielded void, a life-saving scenario that occasionally unfolds as multistory structures tumble pancake-style, support beams buckle and slabs of concrete crash down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026
He rejected the void but put it at the center of his world.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Lima Construction identified that the four window voids posed a risk to those working on the scaffolding platform.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Another artist who uses unusual displays for his work is Ben Cowan, who handcrafts and casts his surfaces, creating sculptural frames with voids reminiscent of elements from Gothic architecture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
He comforted terrified survivors and filled critical information voids by sending continual updates to friends and neighbors as firefighters fought the blaze.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
And he said the focus on its store brands would “allow us to go faster and fill in voids our national partners don’t have visibility to.”
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 11, 2026
The case of Red Corn’s grandfather was one of those voids.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Before the 1970s, courts were extremely skeptical of the uneven bargaining power and information between the government and defendant, and voided plea bargains, if they even had to consider them at all.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
The Friday ruling voided four policies that put “the lives of countless individuals on hold,” U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Physics papers which were sat last week had to be voided, while some of the same exam board's maths papers were also leaked earlier this month.
From BBC ● May 26, 2026
The settlement administrator could have voided or stopped payment on the check.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026
But the foul creatures hadn’t finished yet; holding their beautiful wings high, they squatted among the devastation and voided their bowels.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Tesla shareholders initially voted to give Musk the stock options in 2018, with a Delaware judge voiding the award in early 2024, citing inadequate shareholder disclosures.
From Barron's ● Dec. 20, 2025
But rather than simply give Catholic Charities the exemption, Mr. Kaul argued for voiding it entirely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
They discovered that both increase of bladder pressure and sphincter muscle bursting activity associated with bladder emptying both stopped when PMCESR1+ cell activity was blocked during an ongoing voiding even.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 3, 2024
The competition took place Aug. 5 and the CAS upheld the Romanian petition Saturday, voiding the inquiry that gave Chiles an additional one-tenth in difficulty value that pushed her from fifth to third place.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2024
Hoover in 1905, a mere superfluity not voiding copyright.
From Copyright: Its History and Its Law by Bowker, Richard Rogers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
