omission

/oʊˈmɪʃɪn/

/əʊˈmɪʃɪn/

Other forms: omissions

If you make an omission, you leave something out. If you are a restaurant reviewer and you give a glowing review to a new restaurant but fail to mention that you own half of it, that's a significant omission.

The noun omission comes from the verb, omit, which means to leave out. Omissions can be purposeful or a result of neglect. Was the omission of Aunt Suzy from your wedding invitation something you meant to do, or an accident? If you're cleaning the house but don't take out the garbage, you'll regret your omission when the garbage is stinking up the kitchen.

Definitions of omission

1. noun

   neglecting to do something; leaving out or passing over something
   types:

   inadvertence, oversight

   an unintentional omission resulting from failure to notice something

   pretermission

   letting pass without notice

   elision, exception, exclusion

   a deliberate act of omission

   type of:

   disregard, neglect

   lack of attention and due care
2. noun

   something that has been omitted
   “she searched the table for omissions”

   type of:

   disuse, neglect

   the state of something that has been unused and neglected
3. noun

   a mistake resulting from neglect
   synonyms: skip

   types:

   failure

   an unexpected omission

   dashing hopes, disappointment

   an act (or failure to act) that disappoints someone

   breach

   a failure to perform some promised act or obligation

   copout

   a failure to face some difficulty squarely

   type of:

   error, fault, mistake

   a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention
4. noun

   any process whereby sounds or words are left out of spoken words or phrases
   synonyms: deletion

   types:

   aphaeresis, apheresis

   (linguistics) omission at the beginning of a word as in `coon' for `raccoon' or `till' for `until'

   aphesis

   the gradual disappearance of an initial (usually unstressed) vowel or syllable as in `squire' for `esquire'

   elision

   omission of a sound between two words (usually a vowel and the end of one word or the beginning of the next)

   eclipsis, ellipsis

   omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences

   type of:

   linguistic process

   a process involved in human language