Word of the Day:

"The consensus of analysts is that the crisis may be in abeyance for the moment, but is far from over." — Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Dec. 2021

More example sentences

Abeyance comes from Old French baer, meaning "to have the mouth wide open," which was joined with the prefix a- to form abaer, a verb meaning "to open wide," and, in later Anglo-French usage, "to expect or await." There followed Anglo-French abeyance, which referred to a state of expectation—specifically, a person's expectation of inheriting a title or property. The word, in English, was then applied for the expectation to the property itself: a property or title "in abeyance" is in temporary limbo, waiting to be claimed by a rightful heir or owner.