Did you
know?

hiatus
noun

- a short pause in which nothing happens or is said, or a space where something is missing

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ORIGIN

Hiatus stems from the Latin hiatus - an opening, aperture, rupture, gap - which is from the past participle stem of hiare “to gape, stand open”.

The sense of a “gap or interruption in events, etc.” was first recorded in the early 17th century.

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OTHER USAGES

Apart from the general sense of an interruption, such as taking a leave from work or school, hiatus has a specific meaning in several different fields:

- (music) a small difference in pitch between two musical tones.

- (linguistics) a phonological term referring to the lack of a consonant separating two vowels in separate syllables, as in co-operation.

- (anatomy) a natural opening or perforation through a bone or a membranous structure.

- (geology) a discontinuity in the age of strata.

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SYNONYMS

break, breathing space, gap, HIATUS, holding pattern, interim, interlude, intermission, interruption, interval, lacuna, lapse, let-up, lull, pausation, pause, pause in the action, quiescence, rest, respite, suspension, time out, recess

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“After an eight week HIATUS, sales are beginning to pick up again.”

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Paul Smith