omission

noun

Etymology: From Middle English omissioun, from Old French omission, from Late Latin omissio, omissionem, from Latin omitto.

1. The act of omitting.

   “Scots was not ‘banned’ outright — impossible anyway with so many Scots-speaking teachers but, like Gaelic, marginalised by omission.”

2. The act of neglecting to perform an action one has an obligation to do.

   “E&O insurance (for errors and omissions) covers both errors of commission and errors of omission.”

3. An instance of those acts, or the thing left out thereby; something deleted or left out.

   “The suspicious omissions in the new edition of the book attracted claims of censorship.”

4. Something not done or neglected.

   “The lack of a sponge count was an omission by the surgical team.”

5. The shortening of a word or phrase, using an apostrophe ( ' ) to replace the missing letters, often used to approximate the sound of speech or a specific dialect.