What does omit mean?
To omit is to leave something out or fail to include it in a spoken or written account. The word is especially common when discussing texts, lists, records, explanations, and formal requirements: an author may omit details, an editor may omit a section, or a rule may omit a necessary action. Its connotation varies with context. Neutral omission may simply reflect brevity, but it can also suggest oversight, incompleteness, or deliberate exclusion. In logic and law, omitting a required step or conclusion is a failure to satisfy the rules, not merely a style choice. Because omit precisely identifies the act of leaving something out, it is useful when the absence itself needs attention.
verbTo leave out or exclude something, especially when writing or speaking. In logic and formal contexts, it can also mean to fail to take a required action.
- To leave out or exclude information, a person, or an item from a text, list, record, or account.
- To fail to mention or acknowledge something, especially something important.
- In logic and formal contexts, to fail to perform a required action or conclusion.
"The summary omits several important details from the original report."
"The editor omitted several names from the list of contributors."
"The regulations warn that failure to provide the required notice may omit individuals from the final count."
To omit is to make absence intentional: the missing detail can be as meaningful as the words that remain.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of omit
The word comes from Latin omittere, formed from the prefix ob- and mittere, meaning “to send.” In Latin, the verb referred to letting go or releasing something and developed toward the English sense of leaving something out. English borrowed it in the early 16th century. The same Latin root also appears in related forms such as omission and omissive, while mission belongs to the wider family of words connected with mittere.
Related word forms
How omit is actually used
Generally neutral in tone, although omission can suggest incompleteness, oversight, or deliberate exclusion depending on context. In formal and legal writing, it often means that a requirement has not been fulfilled.
Easily confused with omit
To omit something is to leave it out, whereas to emit something is to send it out or release it.