Definition of "discontinuity" [dis•con•ti•nu•i•ty]

• Lack of continuity, logical sequence, or cohesion. (noun)
• A break or gap. (noun)
• Geology A surface at which seismic wave velocities change. (noun)
• Mathematics A point at which a function is defined but is not continuous. (noun)
• Mathematics A point at which a function is undefined. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In point of fact, this may be all Don Gagliardi intends to suggest, and certainly one can agree that the attitude of rupture and discontinuity is a problem as well."
• "Part of the reason why the alphabetic organization of this novel doesn't finally add up to much more than a modestly entertaining exercise in controlled discontinuity is perhaps that the underlying narrative is so familiar."
• "The focus on discontinuity is also the result of the current general historiographical tendency that (after and against Braudel and the Annales) privileges, in historical interpretation, "the event," understood as discontinuity and a traumatic transformation."