aperture

aperture, interstice, orifice denote an opening allowing passage through or in and out.

Aperture is applied especially to any opening in a thing that otherwise presents a solid or closed surface or structure; it may be applied both to an opening that is a flaw (as a crack or cleft) or to one that is structurally essential

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daylight filtered through small apertures in the dungeon’s outside wall

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windows are apertures to admit light and air

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the aperture of a camera

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pores are minute apertures in the skin that are the openings of skin glands

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Interstice is applied to any unfilled space or gap or interval especially in a fabric (in its widest sense) or in a mass. It is especially applicable to any of the openings in something that is loose in texture, coarse-grained, layered, or piled up

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the interstices between the stones of the wall were not filled with mortar

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a mesh is one of the interstices in a fish net

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Interstice is also used of time in the sense of an empty interval

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what . . . do they do . . . in all the mysterious interstices of their lives?— L. P. Smith

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Orifice is applied to any opening that serves chiefly as a mouth or as a vent

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the orifice of the bladder

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the orifice of a chimney

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the orifice of a wound

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horror . . . when Mongibello belches forth from all its orifices its sulphureous fires— Borrow

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Analogous words: perforation, puncture, bore, prick (see corresponding verbs at PERFORATE): *hole, hollow, cavity: slit, slash, cut (see corresponding verbs at CUT)