give pause

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Definitions of give pause words

noun give pause a temporary stop or rest, especially in speech or action: a short pause after each stroke of the oar. 1
noun give pause a cessation of activity because of doubt or uncertainty; a momentary hesitation. 1
noun give pause any comparatively brief stop, delay, wait, etc.: I would like to make a pause in my talk and continue after lunch. 1
noun give pause a break or rest in speaking or reading to emphasize meaning, grammatical relation, metrical division, etc., or in writing or printing by the use of punctuation. 1
noun give pause Prosody. a break or suspension, as a caesura, in a line of verse. 1
noun give pause Music. a fermata. 1

before 1400

One of the 24% oldest English words

1400-50; (noun) Middle English < Latin pausa < Greek paûsis a halt, equivalent to paú(ein) to stop + -sis -sis; (v.) derivative of the noun

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 98% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.

Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver".

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer