hiatus

plural hiatuses · nonstandard plural hiati

1. countableuncountableA 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.

   1912, Robert Louis Stevenson, Records of a Family of Engineers

   Synonyms: break

2. countableuncountableAn interruption, break, pause or absence.

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

   3 more examples

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

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

   After a ten-year dividend hiatus, shareholder payments only re-started in July 2022.

   2023 December 13, Mel Holley, “Open access operations help to boost First's figures”, in RAIL, number 998, page 20

   In 2017, he wanted to take a brief hiatus from formal studies to pursue his passion for life in the mountains. Ryan and his best friend, James drove to British Columbia to live out a winter season of snowboarding with the full support of their parents.

   2026 August 18, Nicholas Muhoro, “Ryan Shtuka, 20, Vanished After Leaving a House Party at a Ski Resort in 2018. His Walk Home Was Only 300 Metres”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 18 Aug 2026

   Synonyms: breather, moratorium, recess, break, breather, cessation, demurral, gap

3. countableuncountableAn temporary break from work, especially one which is unexpected.
4. countableuncountablegeographyA 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.

   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

5. countableuncountableanatomyAn opening in an organ.

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

6. sometimesuncountablehuman sciencesA 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.

   1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson, In the South Seas […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1896, →OCLC