lapse

1. 1.

   a mistake resulting from inattention

   Synonymsoversight

   Broadermistake
2. 2.

   a break or intermission in the occurrence of something

   “a lapse of three weeks between letters”

   Broaderpause
3. 3.

   a failure to maintain a higher state

   Synonymsbackslidinglapsingrelapserelapsingreversionreverting

   Broaderfailure

   Narrowerrecidivism

Other forms of lapse

plural

lapses·

past tense

lapsed·

present participle

lapsing·

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 lapse

What does lapse mean?

lapse means "pass into a specified state or condition". That is the primary sense; the word has 9 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in lapse?

lapse has 1 syllable: lapse. In IPA it is /ˈlæps/.

What is another word for lapse?

Close synonyms include sink, pass, backslide, relapse, recidivate. 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 lapse a common word?

lapse 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 lapse?

3 words rhyme with lapse. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.