How is lacuna used in writing?

Answer 1

Because it deals primarily with bone structure, I would think it is used in medically-oriented literature. For example, the word is somewhat synonymous with foxhole. But it is unlikely that a writer would describe soldiers scrambling out of their lacunae.

==lacunae are gaps, blank spaces, missing parts.

Authors sometimes leave information unstated, allowing the reader's curiosity and imagination to work. An example is in the Biblical story of Abraham's sacrifice of his son, Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19).

The text reads, in part, "The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance."

On the third day? And we have been told nothing of the conversations or events that took place while a father was leading his only son to slaughter. Surely our imagination, filling in those lacunae, is more powerful than anything the author might have said.