Vakuumissa

Vakuumissa is a Finnish inessive form meaning “in a vacuum.” It is the singular form of the loanword vakuumi, which refers to a space or environment devoid of matter. The word is formed by the stem vakuumi- plus the inessive suffix -ssa or -ssä, yielding vakuumissa, with plural forms such as vakuumeissa.

In practice, vakuumissa is most common in technical and scientific Finnish, particularly in physics, engineering, and vacuum technology. It is used to describe conditions inside a vacuum chamber, during processes conducted under reduced pressure, or when equipment operates in a vacuum. For example: “Näytteet säilytettiin vakuumissa,” meaning the samples were kept in a vacuum; “Kokeet suoritettiin vakuumissa,” meaning the experiments were performed in vacuum.

The term coexists with tyhjiö, the native Finnish word for vacuum. Tyhjiö is more typical in general language, education for non-specialists, or when focusing on the physical concept itself. Vakuumi and its inflected forms appear more often in technical manuals, laboratory protocols, and industry contexts where the emphasis is on the condition or process under vacuum rather than the abstract notion of a vacuum.

Related terms and forms include vakuumin (genitive), vakuumien (plural genitive), vakuumiin (illative), and vakuumeissa (plural inessive). Understanding the distinction between vakuumi and tyhjiö helps clarify usage in different registers: vakuumi/vakuumissa for technical conditions; tyhjiö for everyday or general discussion of a vacuum.