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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
lacuna
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Let us call this the structural lacuna of the intentional scenario.
▪ What I wish to suggest is that filling the structural lacuna makes structured talk without higher-order thought look much less likely.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lacuna

Lacuna \La*cu"na\ (l[.a]*k[=u]"n[.a]), n.; pl. L. Lacun[ae] (l[.a]*k[=u]"n[ae]); E. Lacunas (l[.a]*k[=u]"n[.a]z). [L., ditch, pit, lake, orig., anything hollow. See Lagoon.]

  1. A small opening; a small pit or depression; a small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.

  2. (Biol.) A small opening; a small depression or cavity; a space, as a vacant space between the cells of plants, or one of the spaces left among the tissues of the lower animals, which serve in place of vessels for the circulation of the body fluids, or the cavity or sac, usually of very small size, in a mucous membrane.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
lacuna

"blank or missing portion in a manuscript," 1660s, from Latin lacuna "hole, pit," diminutive of lacus "pond, lake" (see lake (n.1)). The Latin plural is lacunae. Related: Lacunal; lacunar; lacunose.

Wiktionary
lacuna

n. 1 A small opening; a small pit or depression; a small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus. 2 An absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing, often referring to an ancient manuscript or similar such. 3 (context microscopy English) A space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light. 4 (context linguistics English) A language gap, which occurs when there is no direct translation in the target language for a lexical term found in the source language

WordNet
lacuna
  1. n. a blank gap or missing part [syn: blank]

  2. an ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome [syn: coffer, caisson]

  3. [also: lacunae (pl)]

Wikipedia
Lacuna

Lacuna (pl. lacunas or lacunae) may refer to:

  • Lacuna (manuscripts), a missing section of text
  • Lacuna (music), an extended silence in a piece of music
  • Lacuna (linguistics), a lexical gap in a language
  • Lacuna (law), the lack of a law or legal source addressing a situation
  • Lacuna (histology), a small space containing an osteocyte in bone or chondrocyte in cartilage
  • Lacuna (comics), a fictional Marvel Comics superhero
  • The Lacuna, a 2009 novel by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Lacuna, Inc., a fictional company in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Lacuna, a character in Xanth by Piers Anthony
  • Lacunary function, in mathematics
  • Jessie Lacuna, a Filipino swimmer
  • Lacuna (film), a 2012 film
  • Lacuna, a genus of molluscs in the family Littorinidae.
Lacuna (comics)

Lacuna (Woodstock Schumaker) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a mutant and the occasional ally of the superhero group X-Statix.

Lacuna (histology)

In histology, a lacuna is a small space containing an osteocyte in bone or chondrocyte in cartilage.

Lacuna (music)

In music, a lacuna is an intentional, extended passage in a musical work during which no notes are played. A lacuna acts as "negative music" to induce a state of serenity (or tension) in the listener through its contrast to "normal" music consisting of sounded notes. Though no notes are sounded during a lacuna, it is a purposeful musical passage used for a specific effect in the context of the overall work. Lacunae may be of any duration, as indicated by the composer.

Contrast this to a musical rest, which is of much shorter duration and a normal part of musical performance that serves to create rhythm and movement between notes. In general, rests do not call attention to themselves in the perception of the listener, whereas lacunae actively force the listener to experience silence as part of the overall performance.

In classical music, John Cage's famous piece 4'33" consists of three long silences, and may be considered a piece made entirely of lacunae.

Alternative, indie band The Choir incorporated a lacuna in their song "Circle Slide" of the celebrated, eponymous album, as a guitar and sax fade to absolute silence on the record, a feat that drummer Steve Hindalong described as tricky to pull off in a pre-digital environment.

In popular music, hidden tracks are often preceded by a lacuna. Radiohead's "Motion Picture Soundtrack", the last track on the album Kid A has an extended period of silence (the silence is nearly two minutes long) to augment the theme of the album, but is not precursor to a hidden track. Similarly, Boards of Canada's Geogaddi features a lacuna in its closing track, "Magic Window." It features almost three minutes of pure silence.

Some traditional Japanese music incorporates lacunae, the auditory equivalent of negative space, a visual aesthetic element particularly appreciated in Japanese culture.

Lacuna (gastropod)

Lacuna is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Littorinidae, the winkles or periwinkles.

Lacuna (film)

Lacuna (Chinese: 醉后一夜, literally "After a Drunken Night") is a 2012 Chinese romantic comedy film directed by Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wan.

Lacuna (manuscripts)

A lacuna ( lacunae or lacunas) is a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or a musical work. A manuscript, text, or section suffering from gaps is said to be "lacunose" or "lacunulose". Some books intentionally add lacunas to be filled in by the owner (e.g., "The _____ played with the _____ in the _____."), often as a game or to encourage children to create their own stories.

Weathering, decay, and other damage to old manuscripts or inscriptions are often responsible for lacunae—words, sentences, or whole passages that are missing or illegible. Palimpsests are particularly vulnerable. To reconstruct the original text, the context must be considered. In papyrology and textual criticism this may lead to competing reconstructions and interpretations. Published texts that contain lacunae often mark the section where text is missing with a bracketed ellipsis. For example, "This sentence contains 20 words, and [...] nouns," or, "Finally, the army arrived at [...] and made camp."

Usage examples of "lacuna".

After that, Lacky explained how her mother Lacuna, daughter of the original Zombie Master and Millie the Ghost, whose talent was to cause print to form anywhere she chose, had lived a dull life until she got the chance to go back in time, to the year 1078, and propose marriage to the man she liked.

Keep in mind that everything recounted here is thrown out of perspective by what is left unsaid: these notes serve [hyperlink] Interior of the Pantheon, Rome Engraving by Giovanni Battista Piranesi [hyperlink] Temple of Canope Engraving by Giovanni Battista Piranesi [hyperlink] Foundation Wall of Hadrian's Tomb, Rome Engraving by Giovanni Battista Piranesi only to mark the lacunae.

In other cases, the lack of authentic details for some given episode of Hadrian's life has obliged the writer to prudent filling in of such lacunae from information furnished by contemporary texts treating of analogous experiences or events.

Here, where Hadrian's life is concerned, try to manage so that the lacunae of our texts coincide with what he himself might have forgotten.

If there are discrepancies or lacunae in this account, you must fill in the blanks yourself.

That would account for stray bits of information, without depth, and lacunae where you omitted your homework or skimped.

It seems it had an inkling of your power, despite—or because of—certain lapses of information, lacunae in the files, and such.

Everyone on this ship should remember me until the voyage ends, with some lacunae for those who nap.

Scraps of light escaped through lacunas in the roof buttresses, producing a crisscross of white beams that always seemed to fade away before they reached the ground.

It lacked the imperfect recall, the fuzziness, the additions and subtractions dictated by wishful thinking and self-interest, to say nothing of the lingerings and lacunae and backtracking that can turn memory into hours-long daydreaming.