A hiatus is a break or gap in something that usually continues regularly. When your favorite TV show goes on hiatus, it stops airing new episodes for a while but plans to return later. The word comes from Latin and literally means “opening” or “gap.”

Think of hiatus as a planned pause rather than an ending. A musician might take a hiatus from performing to rest and write new songs. A student recovering from an injury might take a hiatus from soccer but plan to rejoin the team next season. Even friendships can go through a hiatus when friends move apart and don't talk as much for a while.

The key difference between a hiatus and just stopping is that a hiatus implies the activity will eventually resume. When a book series goes on hiatus, the author intends to write more books later. When something ends permanently, that's not a hiatus, that's a conclusion.

You might also encounter hiatus in a physical sense. Scientists talk about a hiatus in a geological record where certain rock layers are missing, creating a gap in Earth's history. In every case, a hiatus marks a space where something was continuous, stopped, and then continues again.