Meaning & use
postponements
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“postponements” is a form of “postponement”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meaning
nouncountable
Instances of an event or action being moved to a later time or date.
Grammar: Countable; the singular is 'postponement'. Use 'postponements' when referring to multiple delays.
Patterns
- postponements of something
- a series of postponements
- announce postponements
The frequent postponements of the meeting frustrated everyone involved.
Due to bad weather, there were several postponements of the outdoor concert.
The project suffered multiple postponements before it was finally completed.
Word forms
| singular | postponement |
|---|
Common combinations
- a series of postponements
- A series of postponements delayed the launch by months.
- announce postponements
- The league announced postponements of all weekend games.
- repeated postponements
- Repeated postponements made the team lose confidence.
Synonyms and how they differ
- delays
- More general; 'delays' can refer to any kind of waiting, while 'postponements' specifically means events moved to a later time.
- deferrals
- More formal; often used for official decisions to delay something.
Opposites
Word family
- postpone verb
- To change an event to a later time.
- postponement noun
- The act of delaying something.
Commonly confused: postponements or postponed?
postponements vs postponed
'Postponed' is the past tense of the verb 'postpone', while 'postponements' is a plural noun.
Practice
The _____ of the event were caused by heavy snow.
Choose one answer.
The sentence needs a plural noun as the subject, so 'postponements' is correct. 'Postponed' is a verb form, 'postponing' is a gerund, and 'postpone' is the base verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “postponements”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.