Vacant

How to spell vacant

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce vacant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vacant mean?

1. adjectiveNot occupied, filled, or in use; standing empty.
2. adjectiveShowing no interest, thought, or expression.

Vacant in a sentence

• The flat above the shop has been vacant for three months.

• He gave a vacant stare when asked about the missing files.

• She parked in the only vacant space at the far end of the lot.

• The exhausted nurse wore a vacant look during the long night shift.

Where does vacant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Vacant comes from the Latin verb vacare, which meant 'to be empty', 'to be unoccupied', or 'to be free from work'. From it came the present participle vacans, vacantem, literally 'being empty', which English borrowed through Old French as vacant during the 1300s. The earliest English uses described a position or office that no one held, and the meaning soon broadened to any space, room, or seat that stood empty. The very same Latin root gives us a whole family of relatives: 'vacate', 'vacation', 'vacuum', and 'evacuate' all trace back to the idea of emptiness. The spelling trap is the unstressed ending, which sounds like a vague schwa; it is -ant, not -ent, matching its Latin participle origin.

How the word is built

• vac- (from vacare: to be empty)
• -ant (adjective suffix)