lacuna

American  

[luh-kyoo-nuh] / ləˈkyu nə /

noun

plural

lacunae, lacunas

1. a gap or missing part, as in a manuscript, series, or logical argument; hiatus.

2. Anatomy. one of the numerous minute cavities in the substance of bone, supposed to contain nucleate cells.

3. Botany. an air space in the cellular tissue of plants.

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lacuna British  

/ ˌlækjʊˈnɒsɪtɪ, ləˈkjuːnə /

noun

1. a gap or space, esp in a book or manuscript

2. biology a cavity or depression, such as any of the spaces in the matrix of bone

3. another name for coffer

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Other Word Forms

• lacunose adjective
• lacunosity noun

Etymology

Origin of lacuna

First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin lacūna “ditch, pit, hole, gap, deficiency,” akin to lacus “basin, tub, vat, lake”; lake ¹. lagoon

Example Sentences

“Seurat and the Sea,” a scholarly and astonishingly beautiful show now at the Courtauld Gallery, and organized by Karen Serres, the museum’s senior curator of paintings, fills that critical lacuna.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026

As for a biography of Talking Heads, we are still left with a lacuna that Gould has unfortunately not filled.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2025

A single palm-size vertebra, its central lacuna heart-shaped, had us wondering about its origin story.

From New York Times • Mar. 27, 2023

"You now have empty shelves. The return of those objects will be like filling those shelves. There's a lacuna in our history because those objects were taken away."

From BBC • Oct. 27, 2021

My minimal coverage of Japan in previous editions of Guns, Germs, and Steel constituted the most important geographic lacuna of my book.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond