gap year

American  

[gap yeer] / ˈgæp ˌjɪər /

noun

• gap years
  plural

1. a period of time, usually an academic or calendar year, in which a student takes a break from school to travel, work, or volunteer, typically after ending high school and before starting college.

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gap year British  

noun

1. a year's break taken by a student between leaving school and starting further education

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• gap years
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of gap year

First recorded in 1975–80; gap ( def. ) + year ( def. )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gap year

When he was 16, he took a gap year before college to work at a videogame production company and experimented with primitive forms of AI.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

Now, its decades-long gap year finally complete, a new incarnation of “A Different World” is starting up classes this fall at Netflix.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

At first, he wanted to take a gap year after his A-levels so did not apply for university, but was persuaded to go by family and friends after achieving "great grades".

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

The urgency he feels to build his startup, which aims to bring open-source models offline and onto local devices, made him decide to take a gap year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

“But we’re supposed to go to high school together, then do our gap year in Paris before we go to New York for college, remember?”

From "The House That Lou Built" by Mae Respicio

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