horror vacui
The Aristotelian principle that there are no vacuums in natureThe Aristotelian principle that there are no vacuums in nature.
Meaning
3 senses(historical, uncountable)The Aristotelian principle that there are no vacuums in nature.
(uncountable)The abhorrence of a vacuum; the general tendency to dislike empty space.
(uncountable)In particular, the tendency of an artist (or of art) to fill an entire surface with detail, leaving no blank space.
The Where's Wally? series exhibits horror vacui.
Translations
3 languagesOrigin
From Latin horror vacuī (“fear of empty space”), from horror (“horror, fear”) + vacuum (“vFrom Latin horror vacuī (“fear of empty space”), from horror (“horror, fear”) + vacuum (“vacuum”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.