hiatus

noun

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

1. A gap in a series, making it incomplete.

   “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, pause or absence.

   “The band decided to go on hiatus, citing creative differences.”

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

3. An temporary break from work, especially one which is unexpected.
4. A gap in geological strata.

   “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. An opening in an organ.

   “Hiatus aorticus is an opening in the diaphragm through which aorta and thoracic duct pass.”

6. A syllable break between two vowels, without an intervening consonant.

   “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.”