occupancy

occupancy — noun

1. the situation in which a person lives in a house, flat, or other space, or works

1.nounC1
Definition

the situation in which a person lives in a house, flat, or other space, or works inside a building, treated as a period or arrangement rather than a single visit.

Example

The Lin family's occupancy of the Taipei apartment began on a rainy Saturday in March.

occupancy of [place] for residential use

During Marcus's occupancy, the small office above the bakery was always lit until midnight.

during [someone's] occupancy framing a time period

Common collocations
  • period of occupancy
  • ready for occupancy
  • prior to occupancy
  • permit occupancy
Synonyms
  • tenancy

    narrower — only when rent is paid to a landlord

  • residence

    emphasises living somewhere, not working there

  • habitation

    very formal; often appears on signs and legal notices

Antonyms
  • vacancy

    the state of a place being empty and available

Grammar Patterns

occupancy of [place]

during [someone's] occupancy

Usage Note

Subject is usually a person, family, or organisation, and the noun typically takes 'of + place' or sits inside the formula 'period / start / end of occupancy'. Distinguish from sense 2: this sense names the act or arrangement of living or working somewhere, not how full a place is.

Common Mistakes

I had a short occupancy in the hotel last night.
I had a short stay at the hotel last night.
for one-off visits use 'stay'; 'occupancy' suggests a tenancy or formal arrangement.
She occupancy the house since 2010.
She has occupied the house since 2010.
'occupancy' is a noun; the matching verb is 'occupy'.

2. the share of rooms, seats, or units in a place such as a hotel, plane, or car pa

2.nounC1
Definition

the share of rooms, seats, or units in a place such as a hotel, plane, or car park that currently have people or things in them, usually given as a number out of the total available.

Example

The seaside hotel reported ninety percent occupancy for the long weekend in July.

[number]% occupancy as a measurable share

Low occupancy in February forced the resort to close two floors and lay off staff.

low occupancy with a business consequence

Common collocations
  • occupancy rate
  • high occupancy
  • low occupancy
  • full occupancy
  • average occupancy
Synonyms
  • occupancy rate

    the same idea expressed as the explicit compound noun

  • utilisation

    broader — covers any resource in use, not just rooms or seats

  • load factor

    industry term, mainly used in transport

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

occupancy rate

[number]% occupancy

high / low occupancy

Usage Note

Frequently appears with a percentage, the modifiers 'high / low / average', or as the compound 'occupancy rate'. Subject is the venue or its operator, not the guests; the noun rarely takes 'of + person'. Distinguish from sense 1: that sense is about who is using a place; this sense is about how much of the place is in use.

Common Mistakes

The hotel has many occupancies tonight.
The hotel has high occupancy tonight.
this sense is uncountable; use 'high / low' rather than a plural form.
The flight was at full occupancy of passengers.
The flight was at full occupancy.
drop 'of passengers'; the share itself is the meaning.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four nouns describe being settled in a place, but they do not swap freely. 'Occupancy' is the broadest and most procedural — it covers anyone using a building, whether they own it, rent it, or just have permission, and it is the word a contract or council notice will choose. 'Tenancy' is narrower: it implies a paying renter and a landlord, so a homeowner has occupancy but not tenancy. 'Residence' shifts the focus to living rather than mere use, and often appears in formal addresses or immigration paperwork ('place of residence'). 'Habitation' is the most formal of the four and now sounds slightly archaic outside legal English, where 'unfit for habitation' still appears on housing notices. So a renter signs a tenancy that begins on the first day of occupancy at her new place of residence.

occupancy ↗tenancyresidence ↗habitation ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • ready for occupancy
  • fit for occupancy
  • single occupancy
  • double occupancy

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

The noun reached English in the early 1600s, formed from the verb 'occupy' (in use since the 1300s) plus the Latin-derived suffix '-ancy', which builds nouns naming a state or condition. 'Occupy' itself traces back through Old French 'occuper' to Latin 'occupare', meaning to seize or take hold of something. The earliest English uses are legal — describing a person's hold over land or a building — and the modern statistical sense ('occupancy rate' for a hotel or car park) only became common in twentieth-century business writing.