Pause

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: pôz, IPA: /pɔːz/

• US enPR: pôz, IPA: /pÉ”z/
• cot-caught enPR: päz, IPA: /pÉ‘z/
• Homophones: paws
• Homophones: pores, pours in non-rhotic accents

Origin

From Middle French pause, from Latin pausa, from Ancient Greek παῦσις

Full definition of pause

Verb

1. (intransitive) To interrupt an activity and wait.When telling the scary story, he paused for effect.
• ShakespeareTarry, pause a day or two.
• Miltonpausing while thus to herself she mused
2. (intransitive) To hesitate; to hold back; to delay.
• ShakespeareWhy doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.
3. (transitive) To halt the play or playback of, temporarily, so that it can be resumed from the same point.to pause a song, a video, or a computer game
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To consider; to reflect.
• ShakespeareTake time to pause.

Noun

1. A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 23, 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. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.
2. A short time for relaxing and doing something else.
3. Hesitation; suspense; doubt.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)I stand in pause where I shall first begin.
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.
• John Locke (1632-1705)He writes with warmth, which usually neglects method, and those partitions and pauses which men educated in schools observe.
6. Alternative spelling of Pause