vacuum
pronunciation
How to pronounce vacuum in British English:
UK [ˈvækjuːm]
How to pronounce vacuum in American English:
US [ˈvækjuːm]
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- Noun:
- the absence of matter
- an empty area or space
- a region empty of matter
- an electrical home appliance that cleans by suction
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- Verb:
- clean with a vacuum cleaner
Word Origin
- vacuum (v.)
- "to clean with a vacuum cleaner," 1919, from vacuum (n.). Related: Vacuumed; vacuuming.
- vacuum (n.)
- 1540s, "emptiness of space," from Latin vacuum "an empty space, vacant place, a void," noun use of neuter of vacuus "empty, unoccupied, devoid of," figuratively "free, unoccupied," related to vacare "be empty" (see vain). Properly a loan-translation of Greek kenon, literally "that which is empty." Meaning "a space emptied of air" is attested from 1650s. Vacuum tube "glass thermionic device" is attested from 1859. Vacuum cleaner is from 1903; shortened form vacuum (n.) first recorded 1910. The metaphysicians of Elea, Parmenides and Melissus, started the notion that a vacuum was impossible, and this became a favorite doctrine with Aristotle. All the scholastics upheld the maxim that "nature abhors a vacuum." [Century Dictionary]
Example
- 1. A moral vacuum can strike any rising middle class .
- 2. And it was into this vacuum that napster launched .
- 3. A vacuum in afghanistan threatens the entire region .
- 4. Neomercantilists will fill the vacuum .
- 5. But investors abhor a vacuum .