void

American  

[void] / vɔɪd /

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.

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noun

• voids
  plural

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)

• voids,
  present (3rd person singular)
• voided,
  past participle,  past
• voiding
  present participle

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)

• voids,
  present (3rd person singular)
• voided,
  past participle,  past
• voiding
  present participle

1. to defecate or urinate.

void British  

/ 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

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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

void Idioms  

1. see null and void.

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Synonym Usage

See empty.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• voids
  plural

Participles

• voiding
  present
• voided
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• void
  simple
• voids
  simple
• have voided
  perfect
• has voided
  perfect
• am voiding
  progressive
• are voiding
  progressive
• is voiding
  progressive
• have been voiding
  perfect progressive
• has been voiding
  perfect progressive

Past

• voided
  simple
• had voided
  perfect
• was voiding
  progressive
• were voiding
  progressive
• had been voiding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will void
  simple
• will have voided
  perfect
• will be voiding
  progressive
• will have been voiding
  perfect progressive

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

void voids voided voiding

Ford is hoping that a pivot towards military vehicles can help fill the void created by what the company's UK boss calls the most challenging environment since the invention of the motor car.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Abbott has stepped into the void, at times running more aggressively against Talarico than his own opponent, Austin state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.

From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026

In the meantime, the Rams will look to fill the void of Garrett’s absence with Josaiah Stewart, Desjuan Johnson and rookie Wesley Bailey.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

Coe and World Athletics have planned for three years to fill that perceived void.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

If they crossed it, they’d fall into the void and never escape.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

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

I feel a little like Nellie DuMont Frissé—soaring in her rocket ship, boldly exploring the vast, unknown voids of a new galaxy.

From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein

Ballmer also could be penalized and Leonard’s contract could be voided.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

The punishment was forfeiture of all wins in the 2024 season, which voided the team’s playoff eligibility, and a playoff ban the following year—the “death penalty,” the school lawyer called it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

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

A-level students in several countries, including the UK, have had their exam papers voided after it emerged they had been leaked online.

From BBC ● May 26, 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

Moeller-Maersk after Panama seized its port assets, following a court voiding its port contracts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026

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

Williams failed his physical with the Lakers, voiding the trade, according to people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 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

Beckmesser's wrath holds in but a moment before voiding itself upon Sachs in accusation and threat.

From The Wagnerian Romances by Gertrude Hall Brownell

Related Words

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