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pace

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A step in walking or running.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pays
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpeɪs

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

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. A step in walking or running

  2. A step taken with the foot.

  3. The distance covered by a step

    “He stepped off ten paces from the old tree and began to dig.”

  4. A manner of walking, running or dancing; the rate or style of how someone moves with their feet.

  5. Any of various gaits of a horse, specifically a 2-beat, lateral gait.

  6. Speed or velocity in general.

verb

  1. To walk back and forth in a small distance.

  2. To set the speed in a race.

  3. Measure (distances) by pacing

  4. To measure by walking.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A step in walking or running

Used this way, pace is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use pace

  • “He lived at a fast pace.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

kept paceslow pacerapid pacekeeping pacefast pacesteady pace

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • stride

    A step in walking or running.

  • step

    A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.

  • gait

    The rate of moving (especially walking or running).

  • footstep

    The sound of a step of someone walking.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • pacernounInflected form

    A horse used to set the pace in racing.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • pace carnounCompound term

    A high-performance car that leads a parade of competing cars through the pace lap and then pulls off the course.

  • pace lapnounCompound term

    The first lap of a car race that prepares the cars for a fast start.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: step in walking or running

stridefootstep

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