break
/ˈbɹeɪk/
verbnoun
Core
1.v.terminate
“She interrupted her pregnancy”
2.v.become separated into pieces or fragments
“The figurine broke”
3.v.render inoperable or ineffective
“You broke the alarm clock when you took it apart!”
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break and pause share a recorded sense, so the question is not what they mean but which one fits. break means “terminate”. pause means “a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something”. break is the more common of the two in everyday English.
/ˈbɹeɪk/
1.v.terminate
“She interrupted her pregnancy”
2.v.become separated into pieces or fragments
“The figurine broke”
3.v.render inoperable or ineffective
“You broke the alarm clock when you took it apart!”
/ˈpɔz/
1.n.a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something
2.n.temporary inactivity
3.v.interrupt temporarily an activity before continuing
“The speaker paused”
| break | pause | |
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɹeɪk/ | /ˈpɔz/ |
| Said | brayk | pawz |
| Syllables | 1 | 1 |
| Letters | 5 | 5 |
| Parts of speech | verb, noun | noun, verb |
| Senses | 75 | 4 |
| How common | Core | Common |
| Synonyms | interrupt | intermission, break, interruption |
Full entry for break · Full entry for pause · More comparisons