missing

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of miss

1. not comparableNot able to be located; gone, misplaced.

   my missing socks

   2 more examples

   Forty three killed and 80 wounded in action with the Implacable. 180 killed and miſſing in action with the Centaur.

   1808 October 1, “State of Public Affairs in September. Containing Official Papers and Authentic Documents. [Killed and Wounded on Board the Emperor of Russia’s Late Ship of War Sevolod.]”, in The Monthly Magazine, or British Register, volume XXVI, part II, number 3 (number 176 overall), London: Printed for Richard Phillips, […]; printed by J. Adlard, […], →OCLC, page 281, column 1

   She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: absent, lost, lacking

2. not comparableNot present when it (they) should be.

   missing data point

   3 more examples

   Joe went missing last year. He had all teeth missing when he was finally found.

   We've got some flatware missing - There seem to be some cooking utensils missing too!

   How likely is it that all the people who are described as missing are living together in a small town somewhere?

   1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 71

3. not comparableOf an internal combustion engine: running roughly due to an occasional lack of a spark or other irregular fault.

plural missings

1. mathematicsA value that is missing.

   The treatment of missings is a problem in statistical software.

   1997, S. Klinke, Data Structures for Computational Statistics, page 27

   1 more example

   Patterns of missings across the whole data set are readily visible, but also patterns which only apply to small subgroups of cases.

   2002, David J. Hand, Niall M. Adams, Richard J. Bolton, Pattern Detection and Discovery