Vacancy
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An unoccupied position or job. countable, uncountable
"Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress."
- 2 an empty area or space wordnet
- 3 An available room in a hotel; guest house, etc. countable, uncountable
- 4 being unoccupied wordnet
- 5 Empty space. countable, uncountable
"Sky was set above earth, land ringed with sea, / Chaos retired to its own vacancy …."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 A blank mind, unoccupied with thought. countable, uncountable
"...—who has not looked back to the past with that passion of hopelessness, which deems that life can never more be what it has been,—with a consciousness that the dearer emotions are exhausted, while in their place have arisen but vacancy and weariness?"
- 7 Lack of intelligence or understanding. countable, uncountable
- 8 A defect in a crystal caused by the absence of an atom in a lattice countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"His resignation left a vacancy in the cabinet."
Etymology
From Late Latin vacantia. Doublet of vacance.
Related phrases
More for "vacancy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.