Gap Meaning
/ɡæp/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAn opening in anything made by breaking or parting.
nounAn opening allowing passage or entrance.
Sentence Examples
The cat went through a gap in the fence.
There is a wide gap in the opinions between the two students.
Extra funding is needed to plug the gap.
CEFR Practice Quiz
There was a wide ____ between the two buildings.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
There is a wide ____ between the two mountains that can be seen clearly from the valley floor below.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from Middle English gap /gappe, from Old Norse gap (“an empty space, gap, chasm”), from gapa (“to gape, scream”), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to open wide, gape”). Related to Danish gab (“an expanse, space, gap”), Old English ġeap (“open space, expanse”). Doublet of gape.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness."
— 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
"But there is a wide gap between the dollars being invested in creators and the respect that is paid to them. It is time to take influencers seriously."
— 2026 March 9, Cyrus Veyssi, “In Defense of Influencers”, in TIME, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2026:
"Under bulk billing the patient does not pay a gap, and the medical practitioner receives 85% of the scheduled fee."
— 2008, Eileen Willis, Louise Reynolds, Helen Keleher, Understanding the Australian Health Care System, page 5:
"Honestly K&C could release today with like a bit more SOT buffs and they'd probably still gap a lot of the game"
— 2022 May 4, u/jhawk1117, “Two units that were really ahead of their time”, in Reddit, r/DBZDokkanBattle, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2024:
"sometimes dril gets absolutely gapped by average ukraine war reddit comments"
— 2023 May 23, @slime_machine, Twitter, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2024:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
There was a wide ____ between the two buildings.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
There is a wide ____ between the two mountains that can be seen clearly from the valley floor below.