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pause

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To take a temporary rest, take a break for a short period after an effort.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pawz
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɔz

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.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To take a temporary rest, take a break for a short period after an effort.

  2. Interrupt temporarily an activity before continuing

  3. intransitive

    To interrupt an activity and wait.

  4. transitive

    To stop (an activity) for a while.

  5. transitive

    To halt the play or playback of, temporarily, so that it can be resumed from the same point.

  6. intransitive

    To hesitate; to hold back; to delay.

noun

  1. Temporary inactivity

  2. A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.

  3. A short time for relaxing and doing something else.

  4. A break or paragraph in writing.

  5. A button whose functions are pausing and resuming something, such as a DVD player, a video game or a computer.

  6. Alternative letter-case form of Pause ("a button that pauses or resumes something").

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To take a temporary rest, take a break for a short period after an effort.

Used this way, pause 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
No strong connotation
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 pause

  • “Let's take a short pause before continuing our work.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

pause beforebrief pauseslight pausepause after

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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.