Meanings
plural vastities
- countableobsoleteuncountableEmptiness or desolation.
1 more example
Leo Decimus was so much bewailed in Rome after his departure, that[…]all good fellowship, peace, mirth, and plenty died with him, tanquam eodem sepulchro cum Leone condita lugebantur; for it was a golden age whilst he lived, but after his decease an iron season succeeded[…], wars, plagues, vastity, discontent.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vii - countableuncountableVastness.
there is no […] soule so skittish and stubborne, that hath not a feeling of some reverence in considering the clowdy vastitie and gloomie canapies of our churches […].
, II.12
Origin
- Latinvastitas
- Middle Frenchvastité
- Englishvastity
From vast + -ity, from Middle French vastité or its source, Latin vastitas. Compare Middle English wastite.
More words from Middle French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
vastity. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vastity
“vastity.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vastity. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vastity,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vastity.
Source: vastity on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.