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.
-
Music. a fermata.
verb (used without object)
-
pauses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
paused,
past participle, past
-
pausing
present participle
idioms
verb
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to cease an action temporarily; stop
-
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
-
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
-
pausernoun
-
pausingnoun
-
pausaladjective
-
pausefuladjective
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pauselessadjective
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unpausingadjective
-
pausefullyadverb
-
pauselesslyadverb
-
pausinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pausesimple
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pausessimple
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have pausedperfect
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has pausedperfect
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am pausingprogressive
-
are pausingprogressive
-
is pausingprogressive
-
have been pausingperfect progressive
-
has been pausingperfect progressive
Past
-
pausedsimple
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had pausedperfect
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was pausingprogressive
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were pausingprogressive
-
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
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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:
St Boniface and St Martin in the Wood said they will be available for people to pause for reflection or light a candle.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
The bill would also pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating a Department of Artificial Intelligence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
The rare pause in fighting, which began early Tuesday, enabled a humanitarian mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky and came as the Ukraine war grinds through its fifth year.
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026
She said the Fed could pause after these moves and reassess the economic outlook.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
“We need to time ourselves, and make the teams fair,” I start to say, and then pause.
From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan
Raman repeated it word for word, accent for accent, with no flubs or pauses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
But 15 minutes into the trip, he heard the telltale sounds of a work call coming from seat 4A: agenda updates, awkward pauses and everyone’s favorite: “Can you see my screen?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Nobody pauses to determine whether everyone wants enough chips to justify them.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
As we stand in a beautiful square, the famous Belfry of Mons looming over us, I ask Karl if he ever pauses to truly soak up the sights.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The girl pauses, then continues, "Anyway. You better get going."
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
Binance paused all withdrawals during the incident, sparking panic on social media and drawing comparisons to the collapse of FTX.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
“The outflows ceased when we paused withdrawal service earlier. We are still working with partners to freeze many of the impacted assets, and have frozen around $3 billion thus far,” it said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
He recently made headlines for saying he would "find a way" to share his space with rare bats that have paused his renovation plans.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
We assumed, naively, that my husband’s salary would continue to increase, not that raises would be paused due to university budget concerns, and that once he got tenure, his earnings would essentially plateau.
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2026
We finished descending the stairs and paused at the visitor parking lot and the car line.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
In Guyana on Friday, he visited a site of execution of local people during British colonial rule, pausing to reflect in a gesture seen as indicating his awareness of that past injustice.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
TOKYO—The Bank of Japan is poised to keep interest rates at three-decade highs this week, pausing as it gauges the impact of prior tightening on inflation and growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
The Offspring’s co-founding guitarist Noodles is pausing on performing due to a health scare.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
The strategy became so popular that Fidelity in February said it was indefinitely pausing the opening of new accounts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
I stood and went to my room, pausing to take a last look at my father, who was inhaling deeply, readying himself to deliver a lengthy lecture.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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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.
