MISSING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does missing mean? 

• MISSING (adjective)
  The adjective MISSING has 2 senses:

1. not able to be found

2. nonexistent

  Familiarity information: MISSING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MISSING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not able to be found

Context example:

a missing person

Similar:

lost (no longer in your possession or control; unable to be found or recovered)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Nonexistent

Synonyms:

absent; lacking; missing; wanting

Context example:

her appetite was lacking

Similar:

nonexistent (not having existence or being or actuality)

 Context examples 

But the scientists knew something was missing because they never saw spicules in the simulations.

(Scientists Uncover Origins of the Sun’s Swirling Spicules, NASA)

A special value that may be stored in some database columns to represent an unknown, missing, not applicable, or undefined value.

(Null, NCI Thesaurus)

I have here four letters which purport to come from the missing man.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Astronomers have found new evidence for the existence of a mid-sized black hole, considered the missing link in the evolution of supermassive black holes.

(Astronomers Find New Evidence for Long-theorized Mid-sized Black Holes, VOA News)

Researchers have found the missing link to how pleasurable things and the circadian system influence one another.

(Neurons That Control Brain's Body Clock Identified, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The substitution of missing data with the average derived from multiple datasets of data that is not missing.

(Multiple Imputation Technique, NCI Thesaurus)

Rifle and knife were both missing.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

For two days Maud and I ranged the sea and explored the beaches in search of the missing masts.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Symptoms of the condition depend on the hormones that are missing.

(Panhypopituitarism, NCI Dictionary)

The new macrophages were missing a specific receptor that detects bacteria, making them less effective at responding to future infections.

(Meningitis changes immune cell makeup in the mouse brain lining, National Institutes of Health)