What does "gapping" mean?

A type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures, and usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present. Example: "Some ate bread, and others rice."

What is a synonym for "gapping"?

Common synonyms include: break, break, col, opening, breach, chasm.

Gapping

//ˈɡæpɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures, and usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present. Example: "Some ate bread, and others rice." countable, uncountable
2
The formation of a gap. countable, uncountable
"The suture must be firm enough to prevent gapping when the elasticity of the elastic layer has been in play for some time."

Verb

1
present participle and gerund of gap form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

break break col opening breach chasm

Example

More examples

"The suture must be firm enough to prevent gapping when the elasticity of the elastic layer has been in play for some time."

Related phrases

finite verb

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.