vicinity
noun
Did you know?
Howdy, neighbor! Today we cozy up to vicinity, a word with neighborly origins that was welcomed into English as a French import in the 16th century from Middle French vicinité. It comes ultimately from Latin vicus, meaning "row of houses" or "village," by way of Latin vicinus, meaning "neighboring." Other descendants of vicinus in English include vicinal (a synonym of local) and vicinage, a synonym of vicinity in the sense of "a neighboring or surrounding district." Both of these are formal and rare, but vicinage is notable for giving title to the Vicinage Clause, a segment of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution that entitles an accused person to "an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law."
Examples of vicinity in a Sentence
ABC News, 16 May 2026
Scientists have only ever observed three such interstellar objects — asteroids and comets that were ejected from other stars and fired into our vicinity — giving us insight into material from other solar systems.
—Quanta Magazine, 15 May 2026
The project aims to validate the underlying technology for a future mission that could someday take a neutrino detector to the vicinity of the sun.
—Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 13 May 2026
In one particularly harrowing example, the report details three separate incidents of rape at the site of the Nova Music Festival near the Gaza perimeter, citing a survivor who was hiding in the immediate vicinity of the attack.
—Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 12 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for vicinity
Cite this Entry
“Vicinity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vicinity. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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vicinity
noun
