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
Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2026
Koch will become the first woman to travel to the moon's vicinity, Glover will be the first person of color to do so, and Hansen the first non-American.
—Samantha Mathewson, Space.com, 27 Mar. 2026
The consequences of this project — ranging from water depletion and traffic congestion to permanent environmental degradation — will be borne by those in the immediate vicinity, yet the current system ignores this reality.
—Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 23 Mar. 2026
If the album positions them in the lineage of sometime tourmates Modest Mouse and the Flaming Lips, Something Worth Waiting For sounds less like a swing for the big time than a merry jaunt into its general vicinity, happy to pick up any alt-rock lifers who’ll come.
—Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 23 Mar. 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 31 Mar. 2026.
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vicinity
noun
