lag

1. 1.

   the act of slowing down or falling behind

   Synonymsslowdownretardation

   Broaderdelay
2. 2.

   the time between one event, process, or period and another

   “meanwhile the socialists are running the government”

   Synonymsinterimmeantimemeanwhile

   Broadertime interval

   Narrowerinterregnum
3. 3.

   one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket

   Synonymsstave

   Broaderslat

   Part ofbarrel

Other forms of lag

plural

lags·

past tense or participle

lagged

present participle

lagging

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about lag

What does lag mean?

lag means "hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc.". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in lag?

lag has 1 syllable: lag. In IPA it is /ˈlæɡ/.

What is another word for lag?

Close synonyms include dawdle, fall back, fall behind, imprison, incarcerate. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is lag a common word?

lag is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with lag?

1 word rhymes with lag. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.