Moratorium

//ˌmɔ.ɹəˈtɔ.ɹi.əm// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An authorization to a debtor, permitting temporary suspension of payments.
  2. 2
    suspension of an ongoing activity wordnet
  3. 3
    A suspension of an ongoing activity.

    "Canada may put a moratorium on cloning for research."

  4. 4
    a legally authorized postponement before some obligation must be discharged wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
afterthoughtbindblockblockadeblockagebreak

Example

More examples

"Kazakhstan declared a moratorium on capital punishment."

Etymology

New Latin from Late Latin morātōrium, noun use of the neuter of morātōrius (“moratory, delaying”), from Latin moror (“I delay”), from mora (“delay”), from Proto-Indo-European *mere (“to delay, hinder”). See also moratory.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.