gap vs recess

gap

verb
  • To make an opening in; to breach. 

  • To leave suddenly. 

  • To notch, as a sword or knife. 

  • To check the size of a gap. 

noun
  • A vacancy, deficit, absence, or lack. 

  • The shortfall between the amount the medical insurer will pay to the service provider and the scheduled fee for the item. 

  • An opening in anything made by breaking or parting. 

  • A hiatus, a pause in something which is otherwise continuous. 

  • An opening allowing passage or entrance. 

  • An opening that implies a breach or defect. 

  • (usually written as "the gap") The disparity between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities with regard to life expectancy, education, health, etc. 

  • An unsequenced region in a sequence alignment. 

  • The regions between the outfielders. 

  • A vacant space or time. 

  • A mountain or hill pass. 

  • A sheltered area of coast between two cliffs (mostly restricted to place names). 

recess

verb
  • To inset into something, or to recede. 

  • To take or declare a break. 

  • To appoint, with a recess appointment. 

  • To make a recess in. 

  • To suspend (formal proceedings) temporarily. 

  • To place in a recess. 

  • To suspend its proceedings for a period of time. 

noun
  • A small space created by building part of a wall further back from the rest. 

  • A decree of the imperial diet of the old German empire. 

  • A time of play during the school day, usually on a playground. 

  • An inset, hole, hollow space or opening. 

  • A remote, secret or abstruse place. 

  • A break, pause or vacation. 

  • A place of retirement, retreat, secrecy, or seclusion. 

  • A period of time when the proceedings of a parliament, committee, court of law, or other official body are temporarily suspended. 

How often have the words gap and recess occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )