Spacious

How to spell spacious

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spacious

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spacious mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a large amount of room or open area inside.

Spacious in a sentence

• The new flat has a spacious kitchen with room for a large table.

• Buyers were drawn to the spacious open-plan living area.

Where does spacious come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin spatiosus, meaning 'roomy' or 'ample', which was built on the noun spatium, the everyday Latin word for 'space', 'room', or 'extent of ground'. That same spatium is the direct ancestor of the modern English word 'space'. English picked the adjective up in the late 1300s by way of Old French spacios, applying it first to physical expanses of land and water and later to rooms and buildings with plenty of room inside. A worthwhile spelling note: the related adjective 'spatial' keeps the original Latin 't', but 'spacious' was reshaped with a 'c', so the trap is to write 'spatious' when the standard spelling is 'spacious'. Holding the everyday word 'space' in mind, with its 'c', is the surest way to remember which letter belongs here.

How the word is built

• spac- (from Latin spatium: space, room)
• -ious (adjective suffix meaning 'full of')