Omit

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /əʊˈmɪt/

Definitions

1. To intentionally leave something out or not include it in a group or list
2. To exclude or fail to mention a particular detail or element deliberately
3. To remove or skip over something by choice, causing it not to be part of a process or collection

Etymology: "Omit" carries a sense of letting something slip away on purpose, and its Latin ancestor "omittere" was built from two very ordinary parts: "ob-", meaning "away" or "against", and "mittere", "to send" or "to let go". To omit, in the original sense, was to send something off and let it go, which explains why the word still feels like a quiet act of dismissal rather than a loud one. English borrowed the word in late Middle English, and it was in use by 1422. From the start it carried two further shades beyond simple leaving-out: failing to do something that should have been done, and neglecting a duty. So a person who omitted to write a letter was not just skipping a line, but had let an obligation drop. Those older senses of failure and neglect still sit beneath the modern meaning of leaving something out, and they are the reason "omit" often implies that the gap was a lapse rather than a plan.

Synonyms: exclude, leave out, neglect

Antonyms: include, add