pretermit
Americanverb (used with object)
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to let pass without notice; disregard.
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to leave undone; neglect; omit.
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to suspend or interrupt.
The government temporarily pretermitted its repayments of foreign aid.
verb
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to overlook intentionally; disregard
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to fail to do; neglect; omit
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pretermit
1505–15; < Latin praetermittere to let pass, equivalent to praeter- preter- + mittere to let go, send
Explanation
To pretermit is to overlook or omit something. In an effort to make a family dinner pleasant, your parents might pretermit any discussions of sensitive or controversial issues that might lead to arguments. The verb pretermit is often used in a legal context, both for things that are accidentally left out and for those deliberately omitted. A person who neglects to update their will after having another child inadvertently pretermits that child from the will. A judge who refuses to consider a lawyer's motion in court because it was filed past the deadline pretermits the motion. Pretermit is from the Latin praetermittere and its roots, praeter, "past," and mittere, "to send."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But as I only stayed eight days in this place, and knew not a syllable of the language, perhaps it is as well to pretermit any disquisitions about the spirit of the people.
From From Cornhill to Grand Cairo by Thackeray, William Makepeace
This you must be pleased to let me have again, for I borrow it: for the other, I will pretermit no time to write it; though in good faith, I have half forgot it.
From Letters to Severall Persons of Honour by Donne, John
I have been led farther than I had foreseen, and various subjects for annotation have presented themselves which, though I have no direct need of them, I could not pretermit.
From Middlemarch by Eliot, George
I, thinking it better to pretermit my speech to Harry, retreated into the library, and was glad to think that no one had seen that conference but myself.
From Adela Cathcart, Volume 3 by MacDonald, George
I begged him not to pretermit his GUARDIAN, but to examine it and give me the news.
From The Grim Smile of the Five Towns by Bennett, Arnold
“The law ensures that the pretermitted heir is treated fairly and receives a portion of the estate as if there was no will in place,” the firm says.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2025
The pleasant musical evenings, however, which John had formerly been used to spend in the company of Mr. Gaskell were now entirely pretermitted.
From The Lost Stradivarius by Falkner, John Meade
The editor, glancing after his handsome figure and hearing him take up his pretermitted whistle as he passed out, began to think that the contingent dinner was by no means an inevitable prospect.
From A Sappho of Green Springs by Harte, Bret
There is one singular incident, however, mentioned in the passage immediately following the above, possessing too important a connexion with the final catastrophe to be pretermitted at this place.
But the birth of a New Year is of an interest too wide to be pretermitted by king or cobbler.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Lamb, Charles
Daughters performed the said offices to their fathers, and sisters to their brothers; not pretermitting those who did not neglect their broken-pated bachelors to whom they paid equal attention.
From The Ned M'Keown Stories Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three by Carleton, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
