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omission
oh-MISH-un
- 01Understand
- 02Hear
- 03Distinguish
- 04See it used
- 05Choose how it lands
Something significant left out or not done.
It lets you point at what is missing, so an absence becomes something you can name and ask about.
A mistake is something wrong that is there. An omission is something that should be there and is not, and the gap may have been chosen.
work“Her omission from the credits was the only thing anyone talked about afterwards.”
conversation“He listed everyone he had spoken to, and the omission was the one person who would have contradicted him.”
argument“Nothing in the statement is false. The omission is doing all the work.”
A report you commissioned leaves out the one result that undermines its recommendation.
Meaning held still: Get the missing result included without accusing the author of hiding it.
“The July trial is not in here. I would rather fix the omission now than have the board find it.”
It lands as: Names the gap and gives a shared reason to close it in the same sentence.
Tradeoff: Framing it around the board can sound like a threat even when it was offered as cover.“What happened to the July trial? I want it in, even though it complicates the recommendation.”
It lands as: Asks first and states your position second, which keeps an innocent explanation fully available.
Tradeoff: An open question gives a reluctant author room to justify the absence instead of repairing it.“Add a short section on July before this goes out.”
It lands as: Skips the diagnosis and asks only for the change, which is fast and hard to argue with.
Tradeoff: The author never learns why it mattered, so the same judgment produces the same gap next time.Watch for: An omission is a meaningful absence, not any missing thing. Leaving out what nobody needed is editing.
First met in The Reconciliation. Saving keeps that example with the word.