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• pace
  pace

  noun

  a rate of movement, especially in stepping, walking, etc..
• PACE
  PACE

  acronym

  Police and Criminal Evidence Act

pace

¹ American  

[peys] / peɪs /

noun

• paces
  plural

1. a rate of movement, especially in stepping, walking, etc..

   To raise your heart rate, walk at a brisk pace of five miles an hour.

2. a rate of activity, progress, growth, performance, etc.; tempo.

   The pace of the building's construction had slowed almost to a halt.

3. any of various standard linear measures, representing the space naturally measured by the movement of the feet in walking: roughly 30 to 40 inches (75 centimeters to 1 meter).

4. a single step.

   She took three paces in the direction of the door.

5. the distance covered in a step.

   Stand six paces inside the gates.

6. a manner of stepping; gait.

7. a gait of a horse or other animal in which the feet on the same side are lifted and put down together.

8. any of the gaits of a horse.

   Synonyms:

   single foot, run, walk, gallop, canter, jog, trot, rack, amble, step

9. a raised step or platform.

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verb (used with object)

• paces,
  present (3rd person singular)
• paced,
  past participle,  past
• pacing
  present participle

1. to set the rate of movement for, as in racing.

2. to traverse or go over with steps.

   He paced the floor nervously.

3. to measure by steps or by any of various standard linear measures representing the space naturally measured by the movement of the feet in walking.

4. to train to a certain pace; exercise in pacing.

   to pace a horse.

5. (of a horse) to run (a distance) at a pace.

   Hanover II paced a mile.

verb (used without object)

• paces,
  present (3rd person singular)
• paced,
  past participle,  past
• pacing
  present participle

1. to take slow, regular steps.

   Antonyms:

   skip, scamper, scurry

2. to walk up and down nervously, as to expend nervous energy.

3. (of a horse) to go at a pace.

idioms

1. set the pace, to act as an example for others to equal or rival; be the most progressive or successful.

   an agency that sets the pace in advertising.

2. put through one's paces, to cause someone to demonstrate their ability or to show their skill.

   The French teacher put her students through their paces for the visitors.

pace ² American  

[pey-see, pah-chey, pah-ke] / ˈpeɪ si, ˈpɑ tʃeɪ, ˈpɑ kɛ /

preposition

1. with all due respect to; with the permission of.

   I do not, pace my rival, hold with the ideas of the reactionists.

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pace ¹ British  

/ peɪs /

noun

1. 1. a single step in walking

   2. the distance covered by a step

2. a measure of length equal to the average length of a stride, approximately 3 feet See also Roman pace geometric pace military pace

3. speed of movement, esp of walking or running

4. rate or style of proceeding at some activity

   to live at a fast pace

5. manner or action of stepping, walking, etc; gait

6. any of the manners in which a horse or other quadruped walks or runs, the three principal paces being the walk, trot, and canter (or gallop)

7. a manner of moving, natural to the camel and sometimes developed in the horse, in which the two legs on the same side of the body are moved and put down at the same time

8. architect a step or small raised platform

9. to proceed at the same speed as

10. to test the ability of someone

11. to determine the rate at which a group runs or walks or proceeds at some other activity

12. to keep up with the speed or rate of others

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verb

1. (tr) to set or determine the pace for, as in a race

2. to walk with regular slow or fast paces, as in boredom, agitation, etc

   to pace the room

3. to measure by paces

   to pace out the distance

4. (intr) to walk with slow regular strides

   to pace along the street

5. (intr) (of a horse) to move at the pace (the specially developed gait)

PACE ² British  

/ peɪs /

acronym

1. Police and Criminal Evidence Act

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pace ³ British  

/ ˈpɑːkɛ, ˈpɑːtʃɛ /

preposition

1. with due deference to: used to acknowledge politely someone who disagrees with the speaker or writer

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pace More Idioms  

1. see change of pace; keep pace; put someone through his or her paces; set the pace; snail's pace.

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Synonym Usage

Pace, plod, trudge refer to a steady and monotonous kind of walking. Pace suggests steady, measured steps as of one completely lost in thought or impelled by some distraction: to pace up and down. Plod implies a slow, heavy, laborious, weary walk: The mailman plods his weary way. Trudge implies a spiritless but usually steady and doggedly persistent walk: The farmer trudged to his village to buy his supplies.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• paces
  plural

Participles

• pacing
  present
• paced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• pace
  simple
• paces
  simple
• have paced
  perfect
• has paced
  perfect
• am pacing
  progressive
• are pacing
  progressive
• is pacing
  progressive
• have been pacing
  perfect progressive
• has been pacing
  perfect progressive

Past

• paced
  simple
• had paced
  perfect
• was pacing
  progressive
• were pacing
  progressive
• had been pacing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will pace
  simple
• will have paced
  perfect
• will be pacing
  progressive
• will have been pacing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of pace¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English pas, from Old French, from Latin passus “step, pace,” equivalent to pad-, variant stem of pandere “to spread (the legs, in walking)” + -tus suffix of verbal action, with dt becoming ss

Origin of pace²

First recorded in 1860–65; from Latin pāce “in peace, by favor” (ablative singular of pāx “favor, pardon, grace, peace ”

Explanation

Pace is how fast something travels a particular distance, like a runner who tries to achieve a consistent pace, running each mile in more or less the same amount of time. Pace comes from the Latin word passus, meaning “a step.” Pace is a noun, meaning "the speed at which something happens." Some say city life has a faster pace because everyone hurries and there are so many exciting things to do. Pace is also a verb — if you pace yourself, you’ll have enough energy to experience all of that city's sights, from the rush of rush hour to the late-night party scene.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pace PACE paces paced pacing

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei over the weekend called for a slowdown in the pace of bringing out new AI models.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

How long the Yanbu storage lasts depends on the pace of exports.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

Amodei urged the pace of development to be slowed down and the bosses of two rival AI firms, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk, said they agreed with him.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Novo has struggled to keep pace with Lilly, a nimble competitor that innovated with the way it sold GLP-1 medications like Zepbound.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

My brain clears in the best possible way, and I don’t have to check my watch to know I’m running at a strong pace.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

One company betting on that shift is InnovAge, which participates in PACE, a federal program designed to keep frail seniors in their communities rather than in institutions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026

This compares with 16% in 2018-19, according to state data analyzed by the nonpartisan research center PACE.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2025

“Every movement is individual,” said Melinda Metzger, executive director at PACE, a bus system in the Chicago area that teamed with Via this summer for the O’Hare pickup service.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

The group called PACE, which stands for Practical Actions for Climate and the Environment, organises litter picks with reusable sacks and has planted 300 trees in a community orchard.

From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2022

The scene of the IN PACE, for example, in spite of its strength, verges dangerously on the province of the penny novelist.

From Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson

The UK edition of Drag Race has been putting hopeful contestants through their paces for seven years - plenty of time for a new wave of talent raised on the hit reality show to emerge.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

That these customers could resist the urge to step a few paces outside to see the real thing still amazes me 55 years later.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

"As expected, we didn't detect gamma rays from Mars, but we put the instrument through its paces, and it performed excellently."

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

Cordero's wife, who was injured, rests in a makeshift tent while he puts the children, including his own three sons, through their paces.

From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026

About forty paces ahead, the trail widened slightly beneath a rocky overhang.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

During an interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter in 1980, he quoted from a book on Zen Buddhism and paced around his office, squeezing a wrist exerciser.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

"He's done something to his leg as well and he was quite tired. It was a high paced, fast fight for both the guys."

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

Shirtless, he paced relentless circles on the blacktop.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

The almost breathlessly paced choreography is set to Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “Grande Tarantelle, Op. 67,” performed here with verve by Mr. Fowler.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

I turned around just in time to see Special Agent Aaron Gonzales spin and twirl Mamá to the beat of a fast paced cumbia.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

The watchword of those efforts, pacing, essentially means putting rules in place that would give companies more time to design A.I. guardrails.

From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026

Roared on by a 25,000-strong capacity crowd at the Zurich Diamond League, the Swiss hit the final 100m almost in stride with the infield pacing lights which had been set for a world record.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Conductor Kelly Kuo captured the opera’s pacing but sometimes let the orchestra overpower the singers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

The pacing of this show drives me crazy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

“You’ve been pacing nonstop since you got here.”

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

Related Words

• clip
• momentum
• progress
• rate
• time
• velocity