Meaning & use
gapping
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In grammar, the omission of a repeated verb from the second of two parallel clauses, leaving a noticeable gap.
See it in a sentence
In the sentence 'Some like coffee, others tea,' gapping removes the repeated verb 'like' from the second clause.
Linguists study gapping to understand how listeners mentally reconstruct the missing word.
A note on using this word
Gapping is a specific type of grammatical ellipsis; the term is mostly used in linguistics rather than everyday writing advice.
Words with a similar meaning
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