hiatus

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

• (US) IPA^(key): /haɪˈeɪtəs/
• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /hɐˈjaː.t̪ʊs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtəs

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.

   • 1895, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Stark Munro Letters: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

     It is wonderful that you should have slipped back into your American life so easily after your English hiatus.

   • 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.

• Atushi, hutias

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

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

hiatus

1. (linguistics) hiatus (syllable break between two vowels)
2. (anatomy) 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.

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

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /hiˈatus/ [hiˈa.t̪ʊs]
• Rhymes: -atus
• Syllabification: hi‧a‧tus

hiatus (plural hiatus-hiatus)

1. (linguistics) hiatus

• “hiatus” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• hyātus (Medieval Latin)

From hiō +‎ -tus.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [hiˈaː.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [iˈaː.t̪us]

hiātus m (genitive hiātūs); fourth declension

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

Fourth-declension noun.

• hiantia

• → Catalan: hiat
• → English: hiatus
• → French: 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.

Borrowed from English hiatus.

• (Baku) IPA^(key): /ˈhjatus/ [ˈhja.t̪us]
• Rhymes: -atus, -us
• Hyphenation: hia‧tus

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

• “hiatus” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

hiatus m (invariable)

1. alternative form of hiato

hiatus n (plural hiatusuri)

1. alternative form of hiat