Void
Etymology
From Old French voide, "empty, vast," from a Vulgar Latin form related to Latin vacuus, "empty" (also behind "vacuum" and "vacant"). It began as an adjective for emptiness and hardened into a noun for empty space itself. The emotional sense — an inner emptiness — is a natural extension of the spatial one.
noun · /VOYD/
A completely empty space, or a painful sense of emptiness left by something missing.
What it names
A total absence experienced as a gap — whether literal empty space or the hollow left in a life when something essential is gone.
Example
Her mother’s death left a void that no amount of activity could quite fill.
Related idea
Vacuum is the neutral, physical version — space with nothing in it; void carries emotional and existential weight, an emptiness that is felt rather than merely measured.
adjective / verb · /VOYD/
As an adjective, having no legal force — null and invalid; as a verb, to cancel or make invalid.
What it names
legal nullity — a contract, ballot, or warranty stripped of effect
Example
Breaking the seal voids the warranty; the contract was declared null and void.
Related idea
The emptiness of the noun turns legal: a void agreement is one emptied of all binding force, so its claims become spurious rather than merely absent.