LAPSE
What does "LAPSE" mean?
A brief failure, slip, or interval in which something stops or goes wrong.
Meanings
- A temporary failure of attention, memory, or standards. A momentary lapse in concentration cost her the match.
- An interval or passage of time. After a lapse of ten years, the friends met again.
- To gradually fail, slip, or expire, or to fall back into a former state. His membership lapsed when he forgot to renew it.
- To pass or slip away (of time). Years lapsed before the letter was found.
Did you know?
- A 'lapse', a 'collapse', a 'relapse', and time that 'elapses' are all the same Latin slip: 'labi', to glide or fall, hides inside every one of them.
Word origin
From Latin 'lapsus' (a slip, fall), from 'labi' (to slip, glide, fall); the same root gives 'collapse', 'relapse', and 'prolapse'.
Remember it
LAPSE = a slip you make on a LAP of the track, then you've lapsed.
A little poem
The mind looked away-
one second slipped through its hands
and the cup was glass.
haiku
What it teaches
A lapse is not a fall but a slip; the cure is not shame but the next careful step.
Quick facts
What does LAPSE mean?
A brief failure, slip, or interval in which something stops or goes wrong.
Is LAPSE a valid word?
Yes — LAPSE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is LAPSE?
LAPSE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does LAPSE come from?
From Latin 'lapsus' (a slip, fall), from 'labi' (to slip, glide, fall); the same root gives 'collapse', 'relapse', and 'prolapse'.
What can LAPSE teach us?
A lapse is not a fall but a slip; the cure is not shame but the next careful step.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.