What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Interrupted vs Paused - What's the difference?

interrupted | paused |

As verbs the difference between interrupted and paused

is that interrupted is (interrupt) while paused is (pause).

interrupted

English

Verb

(head)
  • (interrupt)

    • interrupt

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To disturb or halt an ongoing process or action by interfering suddenly.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Do not interrupt me in my course.
  • * , chapter=3
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}
  • To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.
    • The evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.
  • (computing) To assert to a computer that an exceptional condition must be handled.

    • Antonyms

    * continue * resume

    Related terms

    * interrupter * interruption

    Noun

    (wikipedia interrupt) (en noun)
  • (computing) An event that causes a computer to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition
    • The interrupt caused the packet handler routine to run.

    Derived terms

    * hardware interrupt * interrupt handler * non-maskable interrupt, NMI * software interrupt

    External links

    * * * English reporting verbs

    paused

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (pause)

    • pause

    English

    Verb

    (paus)
  • To interrupt an activity and wait.
    • When telling the scary story, he paused for effect.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
    • Tarry, pause a day or two.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • pausing while thus to herself she mused
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=15 citation , passage=She paused and took a defiant breath. ‘If you don't believe me, I can't help it. But I'm not a liar.’ ¶ ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough!
  • To hesitate; to hold back; to delay.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
    • Why doth the Jew pause ? Take thy forfeiture.
  • To halt the play or playback of, temporarily, so that it can be resumed from the same point.
    • to pause a song, a video, or a computer game
  • (obsolete) To consider; to reflect.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
    • Take time to pause .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
  • * , chapter=23
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.}}
  • A short time for relaxing and doing something else.
  • Hesitation; suspense; doubt.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • I stand in pause where I shall first begin.
  • In writing and printing, a mark indicating the place and nature of an arrest of voice in reading; a punctuation mark.
  • A break or paragraph in writing.
  • * (John Locke) (1632-1705)
    • He writes with warmth, which usually neglects method, and those partitions and pauses which men educated in schools observe.
  • (as direct object) take pause': hesitate; give ' pause : cause to hesitate