The act of creating or widening gaps; making openings or spaces between things.
Present participle of 'gap' (to create an opening), formed by adding '-ing' to 'gap'. The base word 'gap' comes from Old Norse 'gapa' meaning to yawn or gape.
In linguistics, 'gapping' has a special meaning—it's when speakers omit repeated words in a sentence ('I like apples, you oranges'), showing how our brains compress language for efficiency.
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