Home › Glossary › Letter L

Lacuna

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An intentional or accidental gap in a poetic text or manuscript, often used thematically to suggest loss, silence, or historical erasure.

Detailed Definition
Lacuna: A deliberate gap or omission in a poem’s text, narrative, or sequence, used to suggest loss, censorship, memory failure, or the ineffable; the absence itself becomes a meaningful compositional element.
Example
Example in poetry:
Lacuna: Sappho’s Fragment 31 omits context, leaving “he seems to me equal to gods” hauntingly isolated; A poem with bracketed gaps: “She said [——] and left”; Contemporary trauma poetry uses white space where words fail; In erasure poetry, lacunae reveal hidden meanings by absence; Silence becomes part of the text’s architecture.
Additional Notes
A gap, missing section, or deliberate omission in a text. Latin for gap or pit. Can be textual corruption or intentional technique. Creates mystery or allows reader imagination. Related to ellipsis and fragmentation.
Also Known As
Gap Blank space Missing passage Textual void
Skip to main content