Vacuum

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈvæ.kjuːm/

Definitions

1. An area or space with no matter inside it ; a device that removes dirt and debris by suction ; a situation or condition where something is completely absent
2. A region entirely empty of particles and air ; a machine used to clean floors by sucking up dust and dirt ; a feeling or state of being empty or missing something important
3. A volume of space without any matter or air ; an appliance that cleans surfaces by creating suction ; a condition characterized by an absence or void of something

Etymology: The Latin "vacuum" was simply the neuter form of "vacuus," meaning "empty," so the noun originally named an empty space. The Romans used it in that plain sense, and it passed into English largely as a scientific term, a place where nothing at all was present. That physical meaning remains the word's core, even as it spread into talk of empty lives and empty promises. The word's Latin root, "vacāre," meant "to be empty," which links it to a whole family of words about absence and leisure. English took the term in its New Latin form, the scholarly language that natural philosophers used to name new concepts, and that is how it arrived with its precise sense of a space stripped of matter. The cleaning appliance came much later. Its name borrows the scientific sense, but the verb meaning to clean with a vacuum cleaner came by analogy with the sucking action the machine seems to perform, as if it were pulling air out of a room to leave it empty.

Synonyms: void, emptiness, vacant space

Antonyms: fullness, occupancy, crowd