respite

1. 1.

   postpone the punishment of a convicted criminal, such as an execution

   Synonymsreprieve

   Broaderpostpone

Other forms of respite

plural

respites·

past tense

respited·

present participle

respiting·

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 respite

What does respite mean?

respite means "a (temporary) relief from harm or discomfort". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in respite?

respite has 2 syllables: res-pite. The stress falls on "res". In IPA it is /ˈɹɛspɪt/.

What is another word for respite?

Close synonyms include reprieve, recess, break, time out, suspension. 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 respite a common word?

respite is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.