proximity

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 30, 2011 is:

proximity • \prahk-SIM-uh-tee\  • noun
: the quality or state of being proximate : closeness

Examples:
Although the proximity of the large dog made her nervous, Carla tried to keep her composure.

The tiny island nation of Malta, owing to its proximity to Libya -- Tripoli is closer to Malta than to Benghazi -- has emerged as a major transport hub as nations scramble to evacuate their citizens from Libya. -- From a blog post by Joshua Keating at ForeignPolicy.com, March 3, 2011

Did you know?
The history of proximity hinges on the idea of closeness, both physical and metaphorical. English speakers borrowed the word from Middle French, which in turn acquired it from Latin proximitat-, proximitas, forms of the adjective proximus, meaning nearest or next. A number of other languages, including Catalan, Portuguese, and Italian, derived similar words from Latin proximus. Other descendants of proximus in English include proximal, proximate, and the somewhat more rare approximal (meaning contiguous).