vast
UK /vɑːst/ · US /væst/ adjective, noun
Forms vaster vastest vasts
- adjective Very large or wide (literally or figuratively). “The Sahara desert is vast.”
- adjective Very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially extent.
- adjective (obsolete) Waste; desert; desolate; lonely.
- noun (poetic) A vast space.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus (“void, immense”). Related to waste and German Wüste.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Waste; desert; desolate; lonely. [Obs.]
- adjective Of great extent; very spacious or large; also, huge in bulk; immense; enormous; as, the vast ocean; vast mountains; the vast empire of Russia.
- noun A waste region; boundless space; immensity. "The watery vast." Pope.
Etymology [L. vastus empty, waste, enormous, immense: cf. F. vaste. See Waste, and cf. Devastate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “vast”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details