HIATUS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hiatus mean? 

• HIATUS (noun)
  The noun HIATUS has 3 senses:

1. an interruption in the intensity or amount of something

2. a missing piece (as a gap in a manuscript)

3. a natural opening or perforation through a bone or a membranous structure

  Familiarity information: HIATUS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HIATUS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An interruption in the intensity or amount of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

abatement; hiatus; reprieve; respite; suspension

Hypernyms ("hiatus" is a kind of...):

break; interruption (some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hiatus"):

defervescence (abatement of a fever as indicated by a reduction in body temperature)

remission; remittal; subsidence (an abatement in intensity or degree (as in the manifestations of a disease))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A missing piece (as a gap in a manuscript)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("hiatus" is a kind of...):

piece (an artistic or literary composition)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A natural opening or perforation through a bone or a membranous structure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

foramen; hiatus

Hypernyms ("hiatus" is a kind of...):

gap; opening (an open or empty space in or between things)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hiatus"):

foramen of Monro; interventricular foramen; Monro's foramen (the small opening (on both the right and left sides) that connects the third ventricle in the diencephalon with the lateral ventricle in the cerebral hemisphere)

foramen magnum (the large opening at the base of the cranium through which the spinal cord passes)

 Context examples 

Bessie supplied the hiatus by a homily of an hour's length, in which she proved beyond a doubt that I was the most wicked and abandoned child ever reared under a roof.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A therapeutic surgical procedure to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease and hiatus hernia.

(Fundoplication, NCI Thesaurus)

She filled up the hiatus his silence left by a reply of her own.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)