What does elide mean?
To elide is to leave something out — either a sound in spoken language or an element of a written or spoken text. In phonetics, elision occurs when speakers smooth away sounds that are technically present, as when 'vegetable' becomes pronounced roughly as 'vej-tuh-bul' rather than with its full four syllables. In writing and rhetoric, to elide a passage is to omit it deliberately, whether for brevity, elegance, or discretion. The word carries a slightly formal, scholarly tone and appears most often in linguistics, literary criticism, and careful expository prose. It derives from the Latin 'elidere', meaning 'to strike out', formed from 'e-' ('out') and 'laedere' ('to injure' or 'to strike'). A useful term for anyone describing how speech compresses or how texts trim away material, 'elide' captures both the mechanical and the rhetorical senses of omission with precision and economy.
verbTo omit or slur over a sound or syllable when speaking, or to leave out a passage or element in speech or writing.
- To omit or slur over a sound or syllable in pronunciation.
- To omit or pass over a passage, detail, or topic in speech or writing.
"In casual speech, speakers often elide the final consonant in words like 'and'."
"The poet elides several unstressed syllables in the second line."
"The report elides any mention of the project's cost overruns."
Every time you say 'camra' instead of 'camera', you're eliding — your mouth is doing what this word describes.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of elide
'Elide' comes from the Latin verb 'elidere', meaning 'to strike out' or 'to crush out', built from the prefix 'e-' ('out of') plus 'laedere' ('to strike' or 'to injure'). It entered English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, initially in a literal sense before settling into its linguistic use. The same Latin root gives us related terms including 'collision' and 'lesion', all carrying a sense of striking or damage.
Related word forms
How elide is actually used
Formal and technical register; common in linguistics, phonetics, literary criticism, and academic prose. Rare in everyday conversation except among educated writers discussing language or rhetoric.
Easily confused with elide
'Allide' is not an established English word; 'elide' is sometimes misheard or misspelled as such.
'Abide' means to endure or remain, while 'elide' means to omit or skip over something.