pause
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: pôz
ipa: /pɔːz/
enpr: pôz
ipa: /pɔz/
enpr: päz
ipa: /pɑz/
rhymes: -ɔːz
homophone: paws
homophone: pores
homophone: pours (non-rhotic)
Forms: form: pauses
Etymology: From Middle French pause, from Latin pausa, from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis), from Ancient Greek παύω (paúō, “stop”), of uncertain origin. Doublet of pausa.
Senses: examples: text: If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 374:
synonyms: hiatus
moratorium
recess
caesura
glosses: A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
synonyms: word: break
word: holiday
word: recess
word: annual leave
word: break
word: day off
word: getaway
word: holiday
word: leave
word: leave of absence
word: pause
word: recess
word: time away
word: time off
word: vac
word: vacation
word: vaca
word: vacay
glosses: A short time for relaxing and doing something else.
examples: text: to take pause
translation: to hesitate
english: to hesitate
text: to give pause
translation: to cause to hesitate
english: to cause to hesitate
text: And like a man to double buſsines bound, / I ſtand in pauſe where I ſhall firſt beginne, […]
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
text: The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, said on Sunday he would have “great pause” about granting a pardon or commutation to Ghislaine Maxwell while another House Republican said it should be considered as part of an effort to obtain more information about Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
ref: 2025 July 27, Sam Levine, quoting Mike Johnson, “Mike Johnson would have ‘great pause’ about a Ghislaine Maxwell pardon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: vacillation
wavering
glosses: Hesitation; suspense; doubt.
examples: text: Teach the pupil to mind the pauses.
glosses: In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and nature of an arrest of voice in reading; a punctuation mark.
examples: text: He [Paul] is full of the Matter he treats and writes with Warmth, which uſually neglects Method, and thoſe Partitions and Pauſes which Men educated in the Schools of Rhetoricians uſually obſerve.
ref: a. 1705 (date written), [John Locke], “[An Essay for the Understanding of St. Paul’s Epistles, […]]”, in A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1707, →OCLC, page xxiii:
glosses: A break or paragraph in writing.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A sign indicating continuance of a note or rest.
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of Pause (“a button that pauses or resumes something”).
Synonyms: word: break
word: breather
word: cessation
word: demurral
word: gap
word: caesura
word: hiatus
word: halt
word: halting
word: interregnum
word: interruption
word: lapse
word: moratorium
word: pause
word: recess
word: respite
word: resting
word: stoppage
word: stopping
word: suspension
Hypernyms: word: discontinuity
word: period
Hyponyms: word: intermission
word: interval
word: prorogation
word: stop
word: time-out
word: vacation
word: coffee break
word: comfort stop
word: fag break
word: smoko
word: tea break
word: breaktime
word: half time
word: lunchtime
word: playtime
Derived terms: aeropause
autopause
coffee pause
Engels' pause
filled pause
Gigapause
give pause
hit pause
homopause
interpause
intrapause
ionopause
Macready pause
micropause
millennial pause
nonpause
normal pause
Omegapause
pause ad
pause buffer
pause buffering
pauseful
pauseless
pregnant pause
press pause
somatopause
spoken pause
Related terms: word: delay
word: desist