PAUSED Synonyms: 25 Similar and Opposite Words

paused

verb

past tense of pause

as in hesitated

to come to a temporary halt in one's activity he paused for a moment to regain his composure

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of paused Reuters said March and April reports of impending layoffs and Meta tracking employees’ keyboard and mouse input in order to train AI agents (Meta has since paused the program) hurt employee morale. — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 26 Aug. 2026 Some areas have paused data center expansion Stroy’s fields are just outside Murdock, a village named for a railroad official at the company that first laid tracks here in the 1890s. — Will Weissert, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2026 Most of the gains occurred during the initial stages of the health emergency when student loan payments were paused. — Matt Egan, CNN Money, 25 Aug. 2026 Independent monitor reports from June 22 to July 3 show that as a result of staffing issues, administrators paused admission of new patients. — Livi Stanford, Hartford Courant, 25 Aug. 2026 But several of those affiliates have severely curtailed their operations since the federal funding was paused. — CBS News, 25 Aug. 2026 The pullback paused a sharp rally that had pushed bitcoin up more than 20% over three days, its strongest three-day gain since 2023. — Lee Ying Shan,ananya Chetia, CNBC, 25 Aug. 2026 Meanwhile, two Indiana players who became briefly eligible through a ruling in a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA in Colorado are currently ineligible because that ruling was paused by an appellate court. — Chris Vannini, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026 The game was paused in the 44th minute due to lightning in the area. — ABC News, 19 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for paused

hesitated

Verb

Though her books continue to be adapted into movies and recurring series, Moriarty has always hesitated to write a sequel.

— Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 25 Aug. 2026
The driver hesitated on the street for a moment before driving away.

— Evgenia Anastasakos, Chicago Tribune, 24 Aug. 2026

Definition of hesitated

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pause

paused

pauses

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“Paused.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/paused. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of paused

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