postponement
Americannoun
-
the act of putting something off to a later time; deferral.
Taking your sick or injured pet to the veterinarian should be prompt, as any postponement can lead to ongoing medical issues.
-
the act of placing a thing below something else in importance or after something else in sequence (now used most often in grammar).
Historically, inheritance laws tended toward a postponement of the claims of female kin to those of male kin.
In English, the end position in a sentence is normally reserved for the key point, so postponement of an element is a way of emphasizing it.
Other Word Forms
- nonpostponement noun
- self-postponement noun
Etymology
Origin of postponement
Explanation
When you delay something until a later time or date, that's a postponement. If a trial lawyer doesn't have all the information she needs, she may ask the judge for a postponement until the following week. A postponement can also be called a deferral or a stay, and it means rescheduling something for later. You can request a postponement of your chemistry test, but there's no guarantee you'll get it. When a baseball game or tennis match gets rained out, the teams agree on a postponement, starting over at the earliest opportunity. Postponement has a Latin root, postponere, "put after, neglect, or postpone."
Vocabulary lists containing postponement
"The Moustache" and "Who We Really Are"
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This Week in Pop Culture: March 30 - April 5, 2019
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ment
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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.
He put the stock’s “underperformance” down to a number of reasons, including the postponement of the group’s U.S. listing, the lack of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan, and “suboptimal” shareholder communications and engagement.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 7, 2026
He also attributed the tepid response in oil prices to an expectation of “a last-minute postponement, maybe not a deal, but a postponement allowing the two sides to continue talking.”
From MarketWatch • Apr. 6, 2026
Trump said the postponement was subject to “the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”
From Barron's • Mar. 23, 2026
Danny Russel, a former senior U.S. diplomat and vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Beijing viewed “the sudden, last-minute postponement as disrespectful.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026
Spassky wanted a short postponement before the start of the match.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
