vicinity

noun

vi·cin·i·ty və-ˈsi-nə-tē

plural vicinities

: a surrounding area or district : neighborhood

: neighborhood sense 3b

: the quality or state of being near : proximity

Did you know?

Vicinity has its origins in the idea of neighborliness - it was borrowed into English in the 16th century from Middle French vicinité, which in turn derives from the Latin adjective vicinus, meaning "neighboring." "Vicinus" itself can be traced back to the noun vicus, meaning "row of houses or "village," and ultimately all the way back to the same ancient word that gave Gothic, Old Church Slavic, and Greek words for "house." Other descendants of "vicinus" in English include "vicinal" ("local" or "of, relating to, or substituted in adjacent sites in a molecule") and "vicinage," a synonym of "vicinity" in the sense of "a neighboring or surrounding district."

Example Sentences

there are no hotels in the vicinity of the hospital the vicinity of the town's only elementary school was one reason why the young couple bought the house

Recent Examples on the Web Police also said recreational divers found the body of a woman in the vicinity of the incident after 10 a.m. — around the same time that the FAA asked them for help to search for a plane that never arrived to its final destination in St. Petersburg.

Omar Rodríguez Ortiz Miami Herald (tns), al, 5 Dec. 2022 Multiple executives think Swanson’s deal will land in the vicinity of those two.

Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Dec. 2022 Devices known as WiFi sniffers and IMSI catchers can glean information from phones in their vicinity, which allow the police to track a target’s movements.

New York Times, 26 July 2022 The Event Horizon Telescope observations could help scientists learn how black holes gobble light and matter in their vicinity, which could help researchers understand how supermassive black holes form and grow to such monstrous sizes.

Denise Chow, NBC News, 12 May 2022 So are several species of apes and monkeys in our evolutionary vicinity—chimps, orangutans, gorillas, macaques, gibbons.

Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 8 Feb. 2022 That puts it in the thousand dollar vicinity, which is a lot of money to SRLLC and Blynn and Ashley.

Peter J Reilly, Forbes, 8 Nov. 2021 They're trapped at airports, in the vicinity of airports, around Afghanistan.

Fox News Staff, Fox News, 5 Sep. 2021 Residents of three Palestinian villages in its vicinity (Jibya, Kobar, and Umm Safa) reported that settlers from the outpost have conducted systematic intimidation and violence over the past year, including assault.

Raja Shehadeh, The New Yorker, 8 June 2021 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'vicinity.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Middle French vicinité, from Latin vicinitat-, vicinitas, from vicinus neighboring, from vicus row of houses, village; akin to Goth weihs village, Old Church Slavonic vĭsĭ, Greek oikos, oikia house

First Known Use

1560, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Time Traveler

The first known use of vicinity was in 1560

See more words from the same year