cavity

Mid 16th century borrowing from Middle French cavité or Late Latin cavitās, from cavus (“hollow, excavated, concave”) +‎ -tās (“-ity”, nominal suffix).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæv.ɪt.i/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  • (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰæv.ɨɾ.i]
• Rhymes: -ævɪti

cavity (plural cavities)

1. A hole or hollow depression in a solid object.

   Hyponyms: microcavity, minicavity, nanocavity

   1. (anatomy) A hollow area within the body.

      Hyponyms: abdominal cavity, body cavity, buccal cavity, chest cavity, endocavity, exocoelomic cavity, haemal cavity, nasal cavity, oral cavity, orbital cavity, pleural cavity, thoracic cavity, tympanic cavity

   3. (engineering, manufacturing) The female part of a mold: the depression itself or (metonymically) the half of the mold that contains it.

      Coordinate term: core

2. (dentistry) A small or large hole in a tooth caused by caries; often also a soft area adjacent to the hole also affected by caries.

   Synonym: caries

   Jim got two cavities filled at the dentist's office yesterday.

• See also Thesaurus:hole

• “cavity”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “cavity”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• “cavity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “cavity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “cavity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.