What does evacuated mean?
"Evacuated" is the past tense and past participle of "evacuate," meaning to have removed people from a place for safety, or to have left such a place oneself. It is most frequently seen in news coverage of emergencies: residents are evacuated before hurricanes, buildings are evacuated during fires, and entire towns may be evacuated in the path of a wildfire. The verb derives from the Latin evacuare, combining ex- ("out") with vacuus ("empty"), making it a cousin of words like "vacuum" and "vacant." Beyond emergency contexts, it appears in medicine to describe draining fluid from a body cavity, and in science to describe containers deliberately emptied of air. The word carries connotations of urgency, danger, and organized movement rather than casual departure. Its noun form is "evacuation," and those who are evacuated are called "evacuees."
Moved out of a place, especially for safety during an emergency; or (transitive) caused people to leave such a place.
"Authorities evacuated the hospital when the floodwater reached the ground floor."
Describing something that has been emptied of its contents, particularly a space from which air has been removed.
"The sample was stored in an evacuated tube to prevent oxidation."
The same word that clears a burning skyscraper also describes your stomach emptying — a reminder that "evacuate" literally means to make empty, from Latin vacuus, the root of "vacuum."
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of evacuated
"Evacuated" comes from the Latin evacuare, formed from ex- ("out") plus vacuus ("empty"), the root that also gives us "vacuum," "vacant," and "vacuous." The word entered English via Late Latin and Old French in the early 17th century. Its earliest English senses were medical, referring to emptying the body, before broadening to describe clearing people from places, a usage that became especially prominent during wartime and large-scale disasters.
Related word forms
How evacuated is actually used
Most commonly encountered in passive constructions ("the building was evacuated") in news reporting about fires, floods, and other emergencies. The medical sense of removing bodily contents is clinical register; the everyday sense of leaving a place is neutral but often carries urgency or gravity.
Easily confused with evacuated
"Eviscerated" means disemboweled or stripped of essential content, while "evacuated" means emptied or cleared out, especially of people from a place.