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hesitation

noun

Simple meaning

A faltering in speech.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hehzihtayshuhn

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US recording
IPA pronunciation (US)

hɛzɪˈteɪʃən

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Doubt; vacillation.

    “She carried out the order without hesitation.”

  2. An act of hesitating

  3. A faltering in speech; stammering.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical

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More ways to use hesitation

  • “There was a hesitation in his speech.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

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some hesitationslight hesitation

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.