hiatus

hiatus

From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day by Merriam-Webster

April 18, 2026 · 2 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the word 'hiatus', its meanings in various contexts, and provides examples of its usage.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2026 is: hiatus • \hye-AY-tus\  • noun In general contexts, hiatus usually refers to a period of time when something, such as an activity or program, is suspended. In biology, hiatus describes a gap or passage in an anatomical part or organ, and in linguistics, it refers to the occurrence of two vowel sounds without pause or intervening consonantal sound. // The actor, who’s been on hiatus for several years, will be starring in a new film. See the entry > Examples: “Following its return in 2025 after a nearly three-year hiatus , the 52nd American Music Awards are heading back to Las Vegas to be broadcast live from a new venue, the MGM Grand Garden Arena.” — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety , 10 Mar. 2026 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…

Topics covered

  • language
  • education

Keywords

  • hiatus
  • suspension
  • biological gap
  • linguistics

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Tristram Shandy

Places: Las Vegas

More episodes of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day podcast page.