pause
Americannoun
-
pauses
plural
-
a temporary stop or rest, especially in speech or action.
a short pause after each stroke of the oar.
- Synonyms:
- lacuna, hiatus, halt, break, interruption, suspension
-
a cessation of activity because of doubt or uncertainty; a momentary hesitation.
- Synonyms:
- lacuna, hiatus, halt, break, interruption, suspension
-
any comparatively brief stop, delay, wait, etc..
I would like to make a pause in my talk and continue after lunch.
- Synonyms:
- lacuna, hiatus, halt, break, interruption, suspension
-
a break or rest in speaking or reading to emphasize meaning, grammatical relation, metrical division, etc., or in writing or printing by the use of punctuation.
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Prosody. a break or suspension, as a caesura, in a line of verse.
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Music. a fermata.
verb (used without object)
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pauses,
present (3rd person singular)
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paused,
past participle, past
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pausing
present participle
idioms
verb
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to cease an action temporarily; stop
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to hesitate; delay
she replied without pausing
noun
-
a temporary stop or rest, esp in speech or action; short break
-
prosody another word for caesura
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Also called: fermata. music a continuation of a note or rest beyond its normal length
-
to cause to hesitate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonpausenoun
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pausernoun
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pausingnoun
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pausaladjective
-
pausefuladjective
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pauselessadjective
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unpausingadjective
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pausefullyadverb
-
pauselesslyadverb
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pausinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pausesimple
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pausessimple
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have pausedperfect
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has pausedperfect
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am pausingprogressive
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are pausingprogressive
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is pausingprogressive
-
have been pausingperfect progressive
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has been pausingperfect progressive
Past
-
pausedsimple
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had pausedperfect
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was pausingprogressive
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were pausingprogressive
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had been pausingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pause
First recorded in 1400–50; (for the noun) Middle English, from Latin pausa, from Greek paûsis “a halt,” from paú(ein) “to stop” + -sis -sis; verb derivative of the noun
Explanation
The noun pause means "a short break," like the pauses in television shows that allow for commercials to be shown. Pause can also be a verb that means "to stop for a short time." Teachers, for example, often pause after making an important point to check that students understand and to give them time to ask questions. Pause which rhymes with laws and cause, comes from the Greek word pausis, "stopping, ceasing," which comes from pauein "to stop, to cause to cease." Why don't you pause and think about that for a moment.
Vocabulary lists containing pause
The Best Starting Words for Wordle
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"Thank You, M'am"
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"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It was the clash of two interviewing titans - the master of the strategic pause and the queen of the awkward silence.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Rather, their plan is to scale up so-called Operation Carpet, under which drones circulate near Russian airports, forcing air-traffic control to pause takeoffs and landings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Novartis hadn’t told Corwin the cases were fatal when she asked about the trial pause, Corwin said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
A waterfall will be added outside the chapel's front steps, creating a "peaceful setting for guests to pause, reflect and enjoy the natural beauty" of the area, a statement said, external.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Jack didn’t even pause at the sight of the Huntsman.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
By the weekend, her team had confirmed pauses at both companies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
That means it can cover huge portions of the sky without lengthy pauses between observations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
First, however, Kennedy pauses to relitigate the federal government’s recent nutrition policy.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
New York school pauses plan to deploy humanlike AI robot teacher after backlash.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
“Some of us are going out for breakfast at the end of shift,” Helen continues, and then pauses to answer a call.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
The U.S. bond market saw a similar story play out only a few weeks ago, when Bessent’s plan to at least double buybacks of long-dated government bonds only briefly paused the Treasury market selloff.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
OpenAI paused some model development for two weeks this summer after two models it was testing were involved in a security breach at AI platform Hugging Face.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
Bristol Myers Squibb told regulators, researchers and patient-advocacy groups in early June that it had paused closely watched drug research because of life-threatening side effects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
When a cyclist paused and waved us forward at a mini roundabout with his arm, the car complied.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
The man in question paused to talk to someone sitting in the aisle, and I immediately dismissed him.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Protect your retirement savings: Stepping away from the workforce can mean losing access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan and pausing the earnings that build future Social Security benefits.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
In July, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the nation’s first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, pausing certain environmental permits for up to one year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
He issued a temporary order pausing the case and allowing construction to continue while the justices decide on a pending legal challenge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
President Donald Trump's administration said Monday it was pausing construction on a $1.7 billion border project at Big Bend National Park in Texas that has faced bipartisan opposition.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
On Fridays, he would often show slides of his trips to Europe, pausing lovingly over pastoral scenes in England.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
