Word of the Day

: November 20, 2015

vicinity

noun vuh-SIN-uh-tee

What It Means

1 : the quality or state of being near : proximity

2 : a surrounding area or district : neighborhood

3 : an approximate amount, extent, or degree

vicinity in Context

There are several wonderful little stores in the vicinity of our new house.

"He showed me how to draw the bowstring and where to keep my sights. Within a few tries, I was shooting in the vicinity of the target." — Lisa Lutz, Self, June 2015

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."