Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hollow; a hole.
  • noun A hollow area within the body.
  • noun A pitted area in a tooth caused by caries.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In horticulture See basin, 12.
  • noun A hollow place; a hollow; a void or empty space in a body: as, the abdominal cavity; the thoracic cavity; the cavity of the mouth.
  • noun The state of being hollow; hollowness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Hollowness.
  • noun A hollow place; a hollow.
  • noun the cœlum. See under Body.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A hole or hollow depression.
  • noun A hollow area within the body (such as the sinuses).
  • noun dentistry A soft area in a decayed tooth.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sizeable hole (usually in the ground)
  • noun soft decayed area in a tooth; progressive decay can lead to the death of a tooth
  • noun (anatomy) a natural hollow or sinus within the body
  • noun space that is surrounded by something

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French cavité, from Late Latin cavitās, from Latin cavus, hollow; see keuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin cavitas, from Latin cavus ("hollow"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱówHwos, from root Proto-Indo-European *ḱówH-

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