hiatus - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Learned borrowing from Latin hiātus (“opening”) (mid-16th century), from hiō (“stand open, yawn”).

Examples (linguistics, words with vowels in hiatus)
reality (re–al-it-y) naïve (na–ïve) Hawaii (Ha-wai–i)

hiatus (countable and uncountable, plural **hiatus or hiatuses)

  1. A gap in a series, making it incomplete.
    Synonym: break
    • 1912, Robert Louis Stevenson, Records of a Family of Engineers‎[1]:
      Even the mechanical engineer comes at last to an end of his figures, and must stand up, a practical man, face to face with the discrepancies of nature and the hiatuses of theory.
  2. An interruption, break or pause.
    Synonyms: breather, moratorium, recess; see also Thesaurus:pause
    The band decided to go on hiatus, citing creative differences.
    • 2023 December 13, Mel Holley, “Open access operations help to boost First's figures”, in RAIL, number 998, page 20:
      After a ten-year dividend hiatus, shareholder payments only re-started in July 2022.
  3. An unexpected break from work.
  4. (geology) A gap in geological strata.
    • 2012, Chinle Miller, “The Tectonic Forces of the Mesozoic”, in In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition, page 33:
      The beginning of the Mesozoic Era on the Colorado Plateau is marked by a regional hiatus or break of sedimentary deposition that lasted about 25 to 30 Ma.
  5. (anatomy) An opening in an organ.
    Hiatus aorticus is an opening in the diaphragm through which aorta and thoracic duct pass.
  6. (linguistics, uncountable) A syllable break between two vowels, without an intervening consonant. (Compare diphthong.)
    • 1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson, In the South Seas […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1896, →OCLC:
      A hiatus is agreeable to any Polynesian ear; the ear even of the stranger soon grows used to these barbaric voids; but only in the Marquesan will you find such names as Haaii and Paaaeua, when each individual vowel must be separately uttered.
  7. A temporary absence from the public or the mainstream.

gap in a series

interruption, break or pause

vacation

anatomy: opening in an organ

syllable break between two vowels

Translations to be checked

Internationalism (see English hiatus), ultimately from Latin hiātus.

hiatus

  1. (linguistics) hiatus (syllable break between two vowels)
  2. (anatomy) hiatus (opening in an organ)

Learned borrowing from Latin hiātus (“opening”), from hiō (“stand open”).

hiatus m (plural **hiatus)

  1. hiatus, gap
    Synonym: lacune
  2. (phonetics) hiatus

Learned borrowing from Latin hiātus (“hiatus, opening, gap, aperture, cleft”).

hiatus (plural **hiatus-hiatus)

  1. (linguistics) hiatus

Borrowed from English hiatus.

hiatus (plural **hiatus-hiatus)

  1. hiatus
    1. a gap in a series, making it incomplete
    2. an interruption, break or pause
    3. (anatomy) an opening in an organ
    4. (linguistics) a syllable break between two vowels, without an intervening consonant

From hiō +‎ -tus.

hiātus m (genitive **hiātūs); fourth declension

  1. A hiatus, opening, gap, aperture, cleft

Fourth-declension noun.

hiatus m (invariable)

  1. alternative form of hiato

hiatus n (plural hiatusuri)

  1. alternative form of hiat