Vacancies

How to spell vacancies

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce vacancies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vacancies mean?

1. nounUnfilled jobs, rooms, or other spaces that are available to be taken.

Vacancies in a sentence

• The hospital advertised several nursing vacancies on its website.

• The hotel sign said it had no vacancies left for the weekend.

Where does vacancies come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb vacare, which literally meant 'to be empty' or 'to be unoccupied'. From that verb came the adjective vacans, 'being empty', and the related noun forms describing the state of emptiness. English absorbed 'vacant' through Old French in the 1300s, and the abstract noun 'vacancy' developed from it to name the condition of being empty or unfilled. Over time the sense narrowed to the practical meanings adults use today: an unfilled job or an available room. The very same vacare root still powers a whole family of related words, including 'vacant', 'vacate', 'vacation', and even 'vacuum', and remembering that shared 'vac' core helps fix the opening of the spelling.

How the word is built

• vac- (from Latin vacare: to be empty)
• -ant (forming an adjective)
• -cy (noun-forming suffix)
• -es (plural)