/ləˈkjuː.nə.ri/
adjective · etym: from lacuna + -ary · used in textual and personal contexts
taking its meaning from what is absent.
a lacunary sentence is the kind finishes itself in the reader. a lacunary photograph shows what is not there. a lacunary friendship continues because the things both parties no longer say are now understood. compare lacuna, of which the lacunary is the adjectival mood.
most of the labyrinth is, on inspection, lacunary. the rooms are made by the walks one takes between them; the words by the ones the reader supplies. a lacunary entry, in the dictionary sense, is one whose definition admits its own incompleteness. this one does, also.
in a sentence: "his answers were lacunary; i understood everything he did not say."
see also · nullabye palinodic dimmerwhat lacuna silence