Word of the Day: Lapse
Use the word “lapse” when there is a failure, a stop, or a decline.
- A temporary lapse in judgment caused Laura to make a bad decision.
- Terry decided to allow her auto insurance policy to lapse by not making payments, but now she can’t drive her car. (The insurance company stopped providing coverage. That’s bad!)
- Don’t let your family’s health insurance lapse.
- When Bob lost his job, he lapsed into despair.
- Older people often suffer from a lapse in memory.
- The entire classroom lapsed into silence when the students found out that their teacher was not coming back.
There are two other words that are similar to the word “lapse”: elapse and relapse. The word “elapse” is used for the passage of time. The word “relapse” is used when a person returns to a previous, bad situation:
- The movie was so interesting, no one could tell how much time had elapsed from the start to the finish.
- After twenty minutes elapse, you can take the pizza out of the oven.
- Dorothea relapsed into a coma last week and died.
- Pedro lost 100 pounds on a very strict diet, but then he relapsed and gained back all the weight.
Essential English Dictionary
Visit the Popular English Words Beginning with L page to see the list of all words starting with letter L. For seeing the HiCafe dictionary, visit the Popular English Words with Meaning page.
