in a vacuum

in a vacuum

1. Divorced from its proper context and therefore suffering from incomplete analysis.

   He is fond of saying that "nothing happens in a vacuum", by which he means that external factors always matter in at least some ways; sometimes he exaggerates this principle by claiming polemically that "there are no coincidences".

   • 2023 October 25, Patrick Wintour, quoting António Guterres, “Israel says it will ban UN staff after secretary general’s comments”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Speaking at a UN general debate on the Middle East in New York, Guterres created fury when he said: “It is important to … recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

• “in a vacuum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “in a vacuum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “in a vacuum” (US) / “in a vacuum” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “in a vacuum”, in Collins English Dictionary.