gap
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An opening in anything made by breaking or parting.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gapIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡæp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An opening in anything made by breaking or parting.
An opening allowing passage or entrance.
An opening that implies a breach or defect.
A narrow opening
A vacant space or time.
A pass between mountain peaks
verb
Make an opening or gap in
transitive
To make an opening in; to breach.
intransitive
To fall or spill open so as to leave a gap.
transitive
To check the size of a gap.
(transitive, intransitive, slang, especially video games, motor racing) To surpass (someone or something) by a considerable margin.
new zealandslang
To leave suddenly.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An opening in anything made by breaking or parting.
Used this way, gap is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use gap
- “Gap between income and outgo.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A component of an ignition system.
The difference in value over a period of time of a country's imports and exports of merchandise.
A pass in a mountain ridge through which a stream flows.
A pass in a mountain ridge with no stream flowing through it.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: opening in anything made by breaking or parting
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.