hesitate

verb/ˈhɛzɪteɪt/

Frequency rank: #5,425 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

To pause before doing something because you are unsure.

Illustration for the English word “hesitate”

Example sentence

She started to cross the street but began to hesitate when she saw the car approaching quickly.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 5,401–5,500