gaping
verb
Form of gap , present participle of gap.
Simple meaning
Make an opening or gap in.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gaypingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡeɪpɪŋ
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.
verb
present participle of gap
Make an opening or gap in
present participle of gap
To make an opening in; to breach.
present participle of gap
To fall or spill open so as to leave a gap.
present participle of gap
To check the size of a gap.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make an opening or gap in
Used this way, gaping 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
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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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.