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.

Click here to go to the Word of the Day page.

Date of publication: November 14, 2016