Willa CatherJ. G. Colton
Did you know?
This brief hiatus in your day is brought to you by, well, hiatus. While the word now most often refers to a temporary pause, hiatus originally referred to a physical opening in something, such as the mouth of a cave, or, as the 18th century British novelist Laurence Sterne would have it, a sartorial gap: in the wildly experimental novel Tristram Shandy, Sterne wrote of “the hiatus in Phutatorius’s breeches.” Hiatus comes from the Latin verb hiare, meaning “to open wide,” which makes it a distant relation of both yawn and chasm. And that’s all we have for now—you may resume your regular activities.
Synonyms
Examples of hiatus in a Sentence
Sungmin Cho, Foreign Affairs, 12 Nov. 2024
After a hiatus that lasted 40 years, ABBA returned with new music in 2021.
—Hugh McIntyre, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
After a three-year hiatus, Apple finally refreshed the iPad Mini with a new seventh generation model for 2024.
—Rudie Obias, Variety, 4 Nov. 2024
From the archives: Lonzo Ball (Los Angeles Times) After a two-year hiatus because of injuries, former Chino Hills standout Lonzo Ball has returned to playing for the Chicago Bulls.
—Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for hiatus 
Dictionary Entries Near hiatus
Cite this Entry
“Hiatus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hiatus. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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hiatus
noun
Medical Definition
hiatus
noun
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