hiatus

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

• IPA^(key): /haɪˈeɪtəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtəs

hiatus (countable and uncountable, plural hiatus or hiatuses)

1. A gap in a series, making it incomplete.
2. An interruption, break or 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.)

   Words like reality and naïve contain vowels in hiatus.

7. A temporary absence from the public or the mainstream.

• (gap in series): break
• (interruption, break, pause): breather, moratorium, recess; see also Thesaurus:pause

• hiatic
• hiatus hernia

• Atushi, hutias

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈhiɑtus/, [ˈhiɑ̝t̪us̠]
• Rhymes: -iɑtus
• Syllabification^(key): hi‧a‧tus

hiatus

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

• (opening in an organ): aukko, avanne

• (linguistics): vokaaliyhtymä

• haisut, haitsu, hitaus

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

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /ja.tys/
• (proscribed) ^{(aspirated h)}

• Audio

  (file)

hiatus m (plural hiatus)

1. hiatus, gap

   Synonym: lacune

2. (phonetics) hiatus

• “hiatus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• hyātus (Medieval Latin)

From hiō +‎ -tus.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /hiˈaː.tus/, [hiˈäːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /iˈa.tus/, [iˈäːt̪us]

hiātus m (genitive hiātūs); fourth declension

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

Fourth-declension noun.

• hiantia

• → Catalan: hiat
• → English: hiatus
• → Italian: iato
• → Portuguese: hiato
• → Romanian: hiat
• → Spanish: hiato

• “hiatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “hiatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• hiatus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• hiatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

hiatus m (invariable)

1. Alternative form of hiato

hiatus n (plural hiatusuri)

1. Alternative form of hiat