HOW TO PRONOUNCE
vacuum
/ˈvækjum/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
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Stress “vac” and listen for “yoo” after “k.”
Use two syllables, starting with the short a of cat. Keep the y sound between k and oo, and let that second vowel lead directly into the closing m.
2 syllables · Stress on syllable 1
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“The experiment used a vacuum chamber.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does vacuum mean?
noun
- A region of space that contains no matter.
- The condition of rarefaction, or reduction of pressure below that of the atmosphere, in a vessel, such as the condenser of a steam engine, which is nearly exhausted of air or steam, etc.
- Ellipsis of vacuum cleaner.
More meanings (8)
noun
- A spacetime having tensors of zero magnitude.
- A ground state of a quantum field or of local spacetime, or more abstractly the lowest-energy state of a system.
- A description of spacetime resulting from a particular compactification of spatial dimensions.
- An emptiness in life created by a loss of a person who was close, or of an occupation.
- An exercise in which one draws their abdomen towards the spine.
verb
- To clean (something) with a vacuum cleaner.
- To use a vacuum cleaner.
- To optimise a database or database table by physically removing deleted tuples.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈvækjum/
Pronunciation used in the listening tip.
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
One who could make of himself a vacuum into which others might freely enter would become master of all situations.
The instant quashing of her purpose by their absence affected her brain as a sudden vacuum affects the body—she nearly fainted.
More book examples (3)
But recourse is had to the cooking of food in vacuum or under pressure, as the exigencies of the occasion demand.
In obtaining this perfection of vacuum apparatus, Edison realized that he was approaching much nearer to a solution of the problem.
In place of these extinct forces, fear, with its destructive properties of expansion, rushes into the vacuum left, and completes the prostration.