vicinity
noun
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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
Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2025
But then the team started finding more of these caterpillars, all covered in the body parts of other insects and shed spider skins, and all in the vicinity of spider webs.
—ArsTechnica, 24 Apr. 2025
The Indonesian Hospital, a stately four-story building, was one of the few structures in the vicinity still standing, though it, too, had reportedly been shelled.
—Clayton Dalton, New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2025
The voices of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were heard along the streets of Silicon Valley this weekend, but neither of the tech billionaires were in the vicinity.
—Greta Cross, USA Today, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for vicinity
Cite this Entry
“Vicinity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vicinity. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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vicinity
noun
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