elision
/ɪˈlɪʒ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1The omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I’m, let’s): the shortening of words by elision [count noun]: conversational elisions...
- Still others prefer a middle option that keeps the apostrophe for omission and elision but drops it for plurality and possession.
- Aside from occasionally adopting hubby Elvis Costello's cute little habit of syllabic elision, The Girl is character-free.
- Similar to the Raskind and Higgins study, the present research also found significant increases in phonological awareness (i.e., phonological elision and nonword reading).
1.1 [count noun] An omission of a passage in a book, speech, or film: the movie’s elisions and distortions have been carefully thought out...
- But the eighty-four-minute film's more crucial faults are really its elisions and omissions, among them its failure to flesh out its distinctive characters.
- Such forms lead to distortions, exclusions, elisions and the establishment of hegemonies.
- This is such an obvious elision that one's instinct is to read the passage again and look for a misprint, or a set of scare quotes - but, no, it is written as intended.
2The process of joining together or merging things, especially abstract ideas: unease at the elision of so many vital questions...
- Across Europe, among the sceptics and the doubters and the out-and-out protesters, a pernicious process of elision is taking place.
- However, this involves compaction and an elision; the self processes memory selectively.
- The elision of two relatively stable and legitimate discourses of the idea of ‘capital’ and ‘emotional intelligence’ is a clever rhetorical move.
Origin
Late 16th century: from late Latin elisio(n-), from Latin elidere 'crush out' (see elide).