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:
He calmly said that no such demonstrations could induce him to add to or withhold a single syllable of what he designed to say, or to pretermit a single act he had designed to do.
From Edmond Dantès by Flagg, Edmund
Members with a taste for writing, having some carefully thought out message to deliver on an intricate topic of foreign or domestic policy are increasingly inclined entirely to pretermit the parliamentary stage of their exposition.
From Social Transformations of the Victorian Age A Survey of Court and Country by Escott, T. H. S. (Thomas Hay Sweet)
Then sayd the Accuser: Thou hast preached, sayd, and openly taught diuers and sundry other great errours and abhominable heresies agaynst all the vij. sacraments, which for shortnes of tyme I pretermit and ouer pass.
From The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) by Laing, David
He greeted me with a brief nod and a grim smile, but did not pretermit his paternal functions.
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 5 by Various
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
“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
Beside these burning words of Mr. Carlyle any additional words of mine would stand only as superfluous foils, and are, therefore, considerately pretermitted.
From Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense Metaphysics With Some of Their Applications by Thornton, William Thomas
I search my diary in vain to find some pretermitted adventure wherewith to give you a thrill, or, as good Mrs. B. calls it, "a feel"; but I can find none.
From A First Year in Canterbury Settlement by Butler, Samuel
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
Anselme authorise to absolue Richard the prior of Elie, vpon his satisfaction pretermitted, and to restore him to the gouernement of the priorie of Elie, if the king thought it conuenient.
From Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (3 of 12) Henrie I. by Holinshed, Raphael
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.
