Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use pause in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun, interjection

Pause means to take a temporary rest, take a break for a short period after an effort. Example: “When telling the scary story, he paused for effect.”

Examples of pause by meaning

verbTo stop (an activity) for a while.

  • But pausing work on an active construction site of this size is not straightforward.2025 February 19, Chris Howe, “Euston: a work in progress”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 44

verbTo interrupt an activity and wait.

  • When telling the scary story, he paused for effect.
  • She paused and took a defiant breath. ‘If you don't believe me, I can't help it.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

verbTo 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
  • Press Start at any time to pause the game.2008, “Story Mode”, in Cory in the House: Instruction Booklet, Burbank, California: Disney Interactive Studios; Nintendo, page 9

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

  • If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 374

nounHesitation; suspense; doubt.

  • to take pause
  • to give pause

nounIn 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.

More sentences with pause

  • The expedition paused to allow for proper acclimatization at base camp.From the entry acclimatization
  • I meant to pause the picture, but hit the rewind by mistake.From the entry rewind
  • He told me to identify a good midway point at which I could pause the job.From the entry midway
  • She paused for only an instant, which was just enough time for John to change the subject.From the entry instant
  • The teacher paused in her lecture to allow the students to assimilate what she had said.From the entry assimilate
  • There was a detectable pause before he continued. We all noticed it but no one commented.From the entry detectable
  • I changed the key binding for pause to the Escape key.From the entry key binding
  • Uh, um, and well are common filled pauses among English speakers.From the entry filled pause
  • We need to hit pause on this project for now, and switch gears to the next thing.From the entry hit pause
  • Pressing the pause button will freeze the video playback.From the entry freeze
  • Playback will freeze if you pause the video.From the entry freeze
  • He paused for emphasis before saying who had won.From the entry emphasis
  • Here is a fact that will give you pause: some states do not publish the voting records of their legislators.From the entry give pause
  • The river continuously flows to the sea, it will never pause to let us cross on dry land.From the entry continuously
  • It was a very clear night so I paused to stargaze until I got cold and went in.From the entry stargaze
  • Inconsiderately, he pressed on when she paused.From the entry inconsiderately
  • Sir Anthony got out a lute and began to strum, pausing every so often to adjust the tension on the catguts.From the entry catguts
  • She paused to show off her miniskirted legs.From the entry miniskirted
  • His pause bufferings were top notch during the run.From the entry pause buffering
  • “I appreciate your curiosity,” Oliver answers in hurried monotone without inflection or pauses for punctuation.2025 August 4, Dara Kerr, “Jim Acosta interviews ‘made-up’ AI avatar of Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver”, in The Guardian. From the entry oliver
  • “But you know what’s really good for a bad mood?” I pause.2024, Kelly Jamieson, “Annie”, in Light ’em Up (Bang Brothers Hockey; 5), →ISBN. From the entry takesie backsies
  • If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.2023 March 22, “Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter”, in Future of Life Institute. From the entry moratorium
  • Another pause, this one agonizing, and then: "You might as well come in.2023 September 22, HarryBlank, “Off Track”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 25 May 2024. From the entry figment of one's imagination
  • When you pause to consider, this is a crazy way to think about design.2023 March 3, Eleanor Flegg, “The comfort v style dilemma: Thought you couldn’t combine the two? Think again — our experts explain exactly…. From the entry comfortcore
  • After a pause that may have accommodated a small sigh, Tom replies.2021 April 30, Jenny Cutts, The Invisible Body, Stopped Clock Press, →ISBN. From the entry tomorrow's chip paper
  • But Marie's reaction when she saw Sam coming gave him pause.2020, Stefan Prebil, Icediamonds Trilogy Volume 2. From the entry plapper
  • Approved, then paused, then unpaused - although its extent seems less clear than ever.2020 April 22, “Letters: Open Access: Confusion at the DfT”, in Rail, pages 31–32. From the entry unpause
  • Pani Zofia Guskov.’ There was a pause, and then Philip stepped forward and opened the door.2020 May 24, Eva St. John [pseudonym; Liz Hurley], “Charles – Beta Earth”, in The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg (The Quantum…. From the entry napoleonka
  • He paused, looking at me intently, his black-flecked eyes scanning my face in quick saccades.2019, Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me, Jonathan Cape, page 23. From the entry saccade
  • Shrutakirti paused in the act of fixing a diamantine necklace around Kunti's throat.2017, Ashok K[umar] Banker, The Children Of Midnight (The Epic Mahabharata; book 1), Jaico Publishing House, →ISBN. From the entry diamantine
  • 'I don't know him well enough.' 'What's he like with the mask off?' I paused.2017, Jenny T. Colgan, Spandex and the City, Hachette UK, →ISBN, page 49. From the entry nobber

Meaning of pause

  1. verb To take a temporary rest, take a break for a short period after an effort.
  2. verb To stop (an activity) for a while.
  3. verb To interrupt an activity and wait.

Full definition of pause

Questions about pause in a sentence

How do you use pause in a sentence?
Pause is used as a verb, noun and interjection. For example: “When telling the scary story, he paused for effect.”
What is a short sentence with pause?
“to give pause”
What does pause mean?
Pause means to take a temporary rest, take a break for a short period after an effort.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pause (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use pause in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/pause. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.