Lacunous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Full of gaps, holes, or missing portions, as in a text, record, or structure that is incomplete
2. Marked by lacunae, meaning spaces or breaks where material has been lost or left out
3. Describing something riddled with openings or omissions that interrupt its continuity

Etymology: Lacunous is a near twin of "lacunose," and the two share a single root: Latin "lacuna," meaning a gap, hollow or pit. That Latin noun was itself a derivative of "lacus," a lake or pool, so the core picture is of a hollow that holds or marks a depression in the ground. Latin speakers used "lacuna" for literal cavities, and English kept that sense of a hollow before it came to describe gaps in texts and in knowledge. English formed the adjective by adding a suffix to that noun. The "-ose" ending, borrowed through Latin "-osus," means "full of" or "having much of," which is why the word describes something riddled with gaps, as a manuscript with missing passages or a surface pitted with holes. "Lacunous" follows the same pattern through the variant ending "-ous," so the two forms mean exactly the same thing and differ only in their suffix.

Synonyms: lacunose, gappy, holey

Antonyms: solid, complete