pausa

See also: pausá

English

Etymology

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

Noun

pausa (uncountable)

1. (linguistics, phonology) The hiatus between prosodic units, e.g. at the end of a sentence.
   • 1954, Johannes Hendrik Kramers, Analecta orientalia: posthumous writings and selected minor works:

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

   • 1998, Pádraig MacCoisdealbha, The Syntax of the Sentence in Old Irish, →ISBN:

     Besides, the pausa endposition may have served to highlight the informational value of the substituendum.

   • 2004, Gerhard Endress, Rüdiger Arnzen, Jörn Thielmann, Words, Texts, and Concepts Cruising the Mediterranean Sea, →ISBN:

     In pausa you say 'ih, in the jussive la- ta'ih, analogous to 'ih, la- ta'ih. And since t' is complete as two letters, the tongue utters both of them in the pausa.

   • 2005, Éva Ágnes Csató, Bo Isaksson, Carina Jahani, Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion: Case Studies from Iranian, page 245:

     For instance, the perfect in -miš (> -mi before pausa) always has the high unrounded vowel, the abstract noun suffix appears in a single variant +luġ, the infinitive is -maġ and the instrumental +ine.

Derived terms

• pausal

Translations

The hiatus between prosodic units

• Arabic: وَقْف m (waqf)
• Indonesian: wakaf (id), jeda (id)
• Polish: pauza (pl) f

Anagrams

• SPUA-A, pauas

Catalan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin pausa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈpaw.zə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈpaw.za]

Noun

pausa f (plural pauses)

1. pause

Derived terms

• estratopausa
• mesopausa
• termopausa
• tropopausa

References

• “pausa” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Etymology 2

Verb

pausa

1. inflection of pausar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaw.za/
• Rhymes: -awza
• Hyphenation: pàu‧sa

Etymology 1

From Latin pausa.

Noun

pausa f (plural pause)

1. pause, break, stop, interval

   Synonyms: interruzione, intervallo

2. (music) rest

Related terms

• pausare

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

pausa

1. inflection of pausare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• pausa in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpau̯.sa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpaːu̯.sa]

Noun

pausa f (genitive pausae); first declension

1. a pause, halt, stop, cessation, end

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	pausa	pausae
genitive	pausae	pausārum
dative	pausae	pausīs
accusative	pausam	pausās
ablative	pausā	pausīs
vocative	pausa	pausae

Related terms

• pausābilis
• pausārius
• pausātē
• pausātus
• pausō

Descendants

• Catalan: pausa
• Dutch: pauze, poos
• English: pause, pausa
• French: pause
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: pause m
• Galician: pousa, pausa (borrowing)
• German: Pause, Pausa
• Italian: pausa, posa
• Portuguese: pausa, pousar
• Romanian: pauză
• Russian: пауза (pauza)
• Sicilian: pausa, posa
• Spanish: pausa

References

• “pausa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pausa”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈpaw.zɐ/ [ˈpaʊ̯.zɐ]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈpaw.zɐ/ [ˈpaʊ̯.zɐ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈpaw.za/ [ˈpaʊ̯.za]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈpaw.zɐ/

• Audio (Brazil (Caipira)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -awzɐ
• Hyphenation: pau‧sa

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin pausa (“pause; halt”), from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis), from the verb παύω (paúō, “to cause to cease, to stop”).

Noun

pausa f (plural pausas)

1. pause (short time for relaxing)
2. interruption (time interval during which there is a cessation of something)

   Synonyms: cessamento, interrupção, suspensão

Related terms

• pausado
• pausagem
• pausar

Etymology 2

Verb

pausa

1. inflection of pausar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “pausa”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “pausa”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpausa/ [ˈpau̯.sa]

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ausa
• Syllabification: pau‧sa

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin pausa.

Noun

pausa f (plural pausas)

1. break, pause, rest
   • 2025 June 20, Randi Kaye and David von Blohn, “El ICE renueva acuerdo con el centro de detención que, según la agencia, no cumplía las normas”, in CNN en Español‎^[1]:

     El ICE añadió que la pausa también se debía a “las persistentes preocupaciones relacionadas con la prestación de atención médica a los detenidos”.

     ICE added that the pause was also due to "persistent concerns related to the provision of medical care to detainees."

Related terms

• pausar

Etymology 2

Verb

pausa

1. inflection of pausar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “pausa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swedish

Etymology

From Latin pausa.

Verb

pausa (present pausar, preterite pausade, supine pausat, imperative pausa)

1. (transitive) to pause (temporarily halt)
2. (intransitive) to take a pause, to make a break

Conjugation

Conjugation of pausa (weak)

	active		passive
infinitive	pausa		pausas
supine	pausat		pausats
imperative	pausa		—
imper. plural1	pausen		—
	present	past	present	past
indicative	pausar	pausade	pausas	pausades
ind. plural1	pausa	pausade	pausas	pausades
subjunctive2	pause	pausade	pauses	pausades
present participle		pausande
past participle		pausad

¹ Archaic. ² Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs.

Related terms

• paus
• pausera