lapse
Americannoun
-
lapses
plural
-
an accidental or temporary decline or deviation from an expected or accepted condition or state; a temporary falling or slipping from a previous standard.
a lapse of justice.
-
a slip or error, often of a trivial sort; failure.
a lapse of memory.
-
an interval or passage of time; elapsed period.
a lapse of ten minutes before the program resumed.
-
a moral fall, as from rectitude or virtue.
-
a fall or decline to a lower grade, condition, or degree; descent; regression.
a lapse into savagery.
-
the act of falling, slipping, sliding, etc., slowly or by degrees.
-
a falling into disuse.
-
Insurance. discontinuance of coverage resulting from nonpayment of a premium; termination of a policy.
-
Law. the termination of a right or privilege through neglect to exercise it or through failure of some contingency.
-
Meteorology. lapse rate.
-
Archaic. a gentle, downward flow, as of water.
verb (used without object)
-
lapses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lapsed,
past participle, past
-
lapsing
present participle
-
to fall or deviate from a previous standard; fail to maintain a normative level.
Toward the end of the book the author lapsed into bad prose.
-
to come to an end; stop.
We let our subscription to that magazine lapse.
-
to fall, slip, or sink; subside.
to lapse into silence.
-
to fall into disuse.
The custom lapsed after a period of time.
-
to deviate or abandon principles, beliefs, etc..
to lapse into heresy.
-
to fall spiritually, as an apostate.
to lapse from grace.
-
to pass away, as time; elapse.
-
Law. to become void, as a legacy to someone who dies before the testator.
-
to cease being in force; terminate.
Your insurance policy will lapse after 30 days.
noun
-
a drop in standard of an isolated or temporary nature
a lapse of justice
-
a break in occurrence, usage, etc
a lapse of five weeks between letters
-
a gradual decline or a drop to a lower degree, condition, or state
a lapse from high office
-
a moral fall
-
law the termination of some right, interest, or privilege, as by neglecting to exercise it or through failure of some contingency
-
insurance the termination of coverage following a failure to pay the premiums
verb
-
to drop in standard or fail to maintain a norm
-
to decline gradually or fall in status, condition, etc
-
to be discontinued, esp through negligence or other failure
-
(usually foll by into) to drift or slide (into a condition)
to lapse into sleep
-
(often foll by from) to turn away (from beliefs or norms)
-
law (of a devise or bequest) to become void, as on the beneficiary's predeceasing the testator
-
(of time) to slip away
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
lapsesimple
-
lapsessimple
-
have lapsedperfect
-
has lapsedperfect
-
am lapsingprogressive
-
are lapsingprogressive
-
is lapsingprogressive
-
have been lapsingperfect progressive
-
has been lapsingperfect progressive
Past
-
lapsedsimple
-
had lapsedperfect
-
was lapsingprogressive
-
were lapsingprogressive
-
had been lapsingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lapse
1520–30; < Latin lāpsus an error, slipping, failing, equivalent to lāb ( ī ) to slide, slip, fall, make a mistake + -sus, for -tus suffix of v. action
Explanation
A lapse is a temporary slip, failure or break in continuity. If you’re normally polite, a lapse in manners could make you forget to say “please” and “thank you.” First used to imply a “slip of the memory,” the noun lapse evolved in the sixteenth century from the Latin lapsus, meaning “a slipping and falling, falling into error.” The connotation of “a moral slip” developed later, and the verb form came into existence even later than that. Behaving badly one day when you're usually on your best behavior is a lapse; behaving badly again after a short stint being well-mannered means you're lapsing back into nasty old habits.
Vocabulary lists containing lapse
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 1
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
List 4
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Quinn and Daniels both took responsibility for the lapse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
The summit’s most lamentable lapse was its failure to take even a small step toward putting guardrails on artificial intelligence.
From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026
Sadly, the $2,000 payment the 82-year-old mother made to her neighbor for clearing her garage is symptomatic of a lapse in judgment about the basic concepts of money, value and reasonableness, compounded by emotion.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
J&J remains a steady earnings grower, while Bristol-Myers faces an expected earnings decline as key patents lapse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
When she left I would simply lapse into the old blankness.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
He told the BBC's Newsday programme that he had witnessed "lapses" at various border points, including with neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania, as well as at Kenyan's main airport.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
If Israel points to security lapses publicly, or shuts the flights for an extended period of time, this will be read by other airlines as signs that Dubai airport isn’t safe.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
These analyses aim to gauge the capabilities of autonomous AI tools, as their lapses fuel fears of losing control over the technology.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Aging often makes itself visible in familiar ways, from gray hair and wrinkles to lapses in memory.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
He had a habit of attributing all of Bunny’s faults indirectly to her—his laziness, his bad humors, his lapses of taste.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
But the CBP had said in a court filing this week that the pause had lapsed on September 30 and work would soon resume.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
He was later given a four-year ban, which lapsed in July this year.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
Red Robin has been studying consumer data to understand where its lapsed diners have gone and target them with ads promising a similar experience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
But when they lapsed at the end of 2025, the average subsidized enrollee’s cost to keep the same plan jumped about 114%.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
The moment I stood before that glittering crowd of sumptuously dressed courtiers, I lapsed into a sort of dream.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
Washington Metro demonstrated how a public work can be both infrastructure and symbol without lapsing into overblown architectural propaganda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
However, this protection comes with limited upside given that it does not eliminate the risk of either poor long-term performance or the policy lapsing.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 1, 2026
“Labyrinth” is fortified with trompe l’oeil wonders, but none are as powerful as a dream sequence resulting from Sarah lapsing into a hallucination after she bites into an enchanted peach.
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026
As a highly-touted five-star talent with NFL aspirations, he never made the switch to baseball either, his draft rights with the Dodgers lapsing after he transferred to Florida State for the 2024 football season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2025
I guessed I'd resolved the soul and sin thing by lapsing from my heavy-duty Catholic background, giving up my immortal soul for a blues kind of soul.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
