noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The hiatus between prosodic units, e.g. at the end of a sentence. uncountable

   "The rule is that in the pausa a word must never end on a short vowel, but it may do so in the context."

Example

More examples

"The rule is that in the pausa a word must never end on a short vowel, but it may do so in the context."

Etymology

From Latin pausa (“break”), from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis). Doublet of pause.

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