pause
nounEtymology From Middle French pause, from Latin pausa, from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis), from Ancient Greek παύω (paúō, “stop”), of uncertain origin. Doublet of pausa.
7 senses
- 1A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action…
- 2A short time for relaxing and doing something else.
- 3Hesitation; suspense; doubt.
- 4In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and…
- 5A break or paragraph in writing.
- 6A sign indicating continuance of a note or rest.
- 7Alternative letter-case form of Pause (“a button that…
1
A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
- 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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 374:
2
A short time for relaxing and doing something else.
3
Figuratively Hesitation; suspense; doubt.
- to take pause
- to give pause
2 more examples
- And like a man to double buſsines bound, / I ſtand in pauſe where I ſhall firſt beginne, […]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]:
- 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.2025 July 27, Sam Levine, quoting Mike Johnson, “Mike Johnson would have ‘great pause’ about a Ghislaine Maxwell pardon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
4
In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and nature of an arrest of voice in reading; a punctuation mark.
- Teach the pupil to mind the pauses.
5
A break or paragraph in writing.
- 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.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:
6
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A sign indicating continuance of a note or rest.
7
Alternative letter-case form of Pause (“a button that pauses or resumes something”).
- Synonyms
- break, breather, cessation, demurral, gap, caesura, hiatus, halt, halting, interregnum, interruption, lapse, moratorium, pause, recess, respite, resting, stoppage, stopping, suspension
- Antonyms
- finish
- Derived terms
30 terms
aeropause, autopause, coffee pause, Engels' pause, filled pause, general pause, Gigapause, give pause, grand pause, hit pause, hit the pause button, 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- Hypernyms
- discontinuity, period
- Hyponyms
- intermission, interval, prorogation, stop, time-out, vacation, coffee break, comfort stop, fag break, smoko, tea break, breaktime, half time, lunchtime, playtime