Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Omit for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is deceptively quiet, yet extraordinarily powerful — omit.
Narrator: Omit — to leave out or exclude is a verb, pronounced oh-MIT, with the IPA /əˈmɪt/.
Narrator: To omit means to leave out or exclude — to not include something that could or should be there.
Narrator: The word entered English in the 15th century from the Latin omittere — a compound of ob, meaning away, and mittere, meaning to send or let go.
Narrator: So at its etymological root, to omit is to send something away — to deliberately release it from the whole.
Narrator: Omit can be neutral — you omit irrelevant details from a report, which is simply good editing.
Narrator: Or it can carry a moral weight — to omit crucial information in a legal context can be a form of deception.
Narrator: The word implies intention. You do not accidentally omit something — you choose to leave it out.
Narrator: This distinguishes omit from words like miss or overlook, which suggest accident rather than decision.
Narrator: In grammar, an omission is a word or phrase deliberately or accidentally left out. In law, omission can constitute negligence.
Narrator: Omit sits in a formal to neutral register — common in academic, legal, technical, and professional writing.
Narrator: In a world of too much information, knowing what to omit is perhaps the most underrated skill of all.
Speaker A: I sent the report and immediately realised I'd omitted the executive summary. Had to resend the whole thing.
Speaker B: Oh, that's painful. An executive summary is the one thing senior readers actually read.
Speaker A: Exactly. And it reminded me how much weight the word omit carries — it's not just forgetting something.
Speaker B: Right. Omit implies a decision, or at least a deliberate act. Miss or overlook suggest accident. Omit is more pointed.
Speaker A: And in legal contexts especially — deliberately omitting information from a contract or statement can have serious consequences.
Speaker B: Yes, an omission in law can be as significant as a commission — what you didn't say can be as damning as what you did.
Speaker A: On the other hand, good writing is all about knowing what to omit. A tight argument cuts everything non-essential.
Speaker B: Absolutely. Elmore Leonard's famous rule: omit the parts readers tend to skip. It's the editor's core skill.
Speaker A: Synonyms — exclude, leave out, drop, skip. But omit is more formal and deliberate than skip, and more specific than exclude.
Speaker B: And don't confuse omit with emit — a common spelling mistake. To emit is to send out, like heat or sound. To omit is to leave out.
Speaker A: Very different words. Omit removes; emit releases.
Speaker B: Put like that, it is rather elegant. The art of omission is the art of deciding what the world does not need to hear.
Speaker B: Today: the word omit in AI prompt engineering. This one is immediately practical — omit is a precision instruction.
Speaker A: Yes — when you want to exclude something from the output, omit is far more decisive than don't include or skip.
Speaker B: Exactly. Omit is a command. Short, unambiguous, final. Let's start with UI design.
Speaker B: PROMPT 1
Speaker A: Omit the sidebar — the AI doesn't guess, doesn't add a collapsed version, just removes it. Precise.
Speaker B: Right. Scenario two — API design.
Speaker B: PROMPT 2
Speaker A: Omit sensitive fields from the API response — so the AI knows: security concern, don't expose this data.
Speaker B: Scenario three — database query.
Speaker B: PROMPT 3
Speaker A: Omit deleted records — so the query filters out soft-deleted rows automatically. One word, clear behaviour.
Speaker B: Now — a dashboard for HR.
Speaker B: PROMPT 4
Speaker A: Omit archived employees — so the active headcount view stays clean. No clutter from inactive records.
Speaker B: Scenario five — full application.
Speaker B: PROMPT 5
Speaker A: Omit the registration page — so the AI builds a login-only app. Direct and unambiguous.
Speaker B: And final — report generation.
Speaker B: PROMPT 6
Speaker A: Omit zero-value rows — so the financial report only shows meaningful data. Clean and professional output.
Speaker B: Omit is a scalpel, not a hammer. One word removes exactly what you mean and nothing else.
Build a clean dashboard layout — omit the sidebar entirely. Full-width content area, top navigation only, with a collapsible filter panel at the top right.
Design a REST API for a user profile endpoint — omit sensitive fields such as password hash, internal IDs, and payment tokens from the JSON response.
Write a SQL query to list all active orders — omit deleted records by filtering where deleted_at is null. Include customer name, total, and status columns.
Build an HR headcount dashboard — omit archived employees. Show only active staff, grouped by department, with headcount totals and a trend chart.
Build a secure admin login app — omit the registration page. Admins are pre-created in the database. Include two-factor authentication and session timeout.
Generate a monthly financial report — omit any rows where the value is zero. Show department, budget, actual spend, and variance. Export to PDF and CSV.
Omit — meaning in Arabic & definition More O courses GL Dictionary