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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Hī-ā'tus, n.

noun

Lat. pl. id.; Eng. pl. HI-Ā'TUS-ES. [Lat., from hiare. See supra.]

  1. An opening; an aperture; a gap; a chasm.
  2. A defect; a chasm in a manuscript, where some part is lost or effaced.
  3. (Gram.) The concurrence of two vowels in two successive syllables or words, occasioning a hardness in the pronunciation. Pope.