hiat-; -hisc-

1. To open in definite places, discharging seeds, pollen, or other contents, as the ripe capsules or pods of some plants.
2. To rupture or to break open, as a surgical wound: "A surgical wound may partially or completely dehisce after surgery, depending upon whether some or all of the layers of tissue come open."
3. To burst open, as capsules of plants; to gape.
4. Etymology: from Latin dehiscere, "to split open", and from hiscere, "to gape, to yawn"; from Latin hiare, "to yawn".

1. The spontaneous or natural bursting open at the maturity of a plant structure; such as, a fruit, anther, or sporangium, to release its contents.
2. A rupture, bursting open, or splitting open, as of a surgical wound, or of an organ or structure to discharge its contents: "A dehiscence is a complication of surgery which take place in a secondary to poor wound healing."

"Risk factors of dehiscences include diabetes, advanced age, obesity, and trauma during the post-surgical period."

3. Etymology: from Latin dehiscere, "to split open"; from hiscere, "to gape, to yawn", and from Latin hiare, "to yawn".

1. Pertaining to something that breaks open when mature in order to release its contents: "Many plants have dehiscent seed pods that open to release their seeds when they reach final development."
2. A reference to the splitting open of a partially healed surgery: "There are times when a surgical incision which has been closed with sutures or clips becomes a dehiscent wound when it breaks open before it heals."

1. Referring to something that is gaping or open: "Joe went to the medical clinic so a doctor could treat his laceration or hiant wound which was bleeding and needed immediate emergency treatment."
2. Etymology: from Latin hians and hiare, "to gape or to open wide">

Relating to a large opening, aperture, or perforation: "A hiatal hernia is an anatomical abnormality in which part of the stomach protrudes through a diaphragm (large muscle between the lungs and the stomach that helps people to breathe) and up into the chest."

An opening or gap in an organ of the body: "One example of a hiation is the opening in the diaphragm (muscular separation of the stomach and the tube that moves food from the mouth to the stomach) and the thoracic cavities (area between the neck and the diaphragm).

A surgical procedure to repair a space, gap, or widened opening; usually employing sutures.

1. A gap or a large opening or an interruption in space, time, or continuity: The concert series has to take a hiatus because the concert hall burnt down the previous week.
2. A slight pause occurring when two adjacent vowels in consecutive syllables are pronounced, as in "duality": In Voni's English class she learned that the terms "naive" and "cooperate" were two good examples of hiatuses.
3. In anatomy, a separation, aperture, fissure, or short passage in an organ or a body part: The spinal cord passes through the hiatus, a large opening called the foramen magnum, which is located at the base of the cranium.
4. In printing, a space where something is missing; especially, in manuscripts: The scholars detected a hiatus, or a lost passage in the medieval writings which they were trying to transcribe.
5. Etymology: from Latin hiatus, "opening, rupture, gap", from hiare, "to gape, to stand open"; "a break or opening in a material object". © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. Not splitting open at maturity: indehiscent fruit.
2. Not opening spontaneously at maturity to release seeds; hard, dry, holding onto the seeds.
3. Lacking a distinct opening mechanism; spores shed by irregular rupture or breakdown of the capsule wall.

A defect of the eye characterised by multiple holes in the iris.

A loss of the buccal or lingual bone overlaying the root portion of a tooth, leaving that area covered by soft tissue only.