cavity

cavity (ˈkævɪtɪ)

—n , pl -ties
1.	a hollow space; hole
2.	dentistry See caries a soft decayed area on a tooth
3.	any empty or hollow space within the body: the oral cavity
4.	electronics See cavity resonator

[C16: from French cavité, from Late Latin cavitās, from Latin cavus hollow]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

cavity

1540s, from M.Fr. cavité, from L.L. cavitas "hollowness," from L. cavus "hollow" (see cave).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

cavity cav·i·ty (kāv'ĭ-tē)
n.

A hollow area within the body, such as a sinus cavity.
A pitted area in a tooth caused by caries.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

cavity

(kāv'ĭ-tē) Pronunciation Key

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

Example sentences

They then filled the spinal cavity around the injured area with blocks of

hydrogel laced with stem cells from rat bone marrow.

Remove the package of gizzards, heart, liver and neck from the cavity of the

chicken.

The patient will experience a dull ache around the nose and sinus cavity that

can be treated with pain medication.

But, it was natural cavity they said, so it wasn't my fault.

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"Since childhood, I have been enchanted by the fact and the symbolism of the right hand and the left—the one the doer, the other the dreamer. The right is order and lawfulness, le droit. Its beauties are those of geometry and taut implication. Reaching for knowledge with the right hand is science. Yet to say only that much of science is to overlook one of its excitements, for the great hypotheses of science are gifts carried in the right hand. Of the left hand we say that it is awkward and, while it has been proposed that art students can seduce their proper hand to more expressiveness by drawing first with the left, we nonetheless suspect this function. The French speak of the illegitimate descendent as being à main gauche, and, though the heart is virtually at the center of the thoracic cavity, we listen for it on the left. Sentiment, intuition, bastardy. And should we say that reaching for knowledge with the left hand is art? Again it is not enough, for as surely as the recital of a daydream differs from the well-wrought tale, there is a barrier between undisciplined fantasy and art. To climb the barrier requires a right hand adept at technique and artifice."

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