Meaning & use
resume
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To begin something again after a break, or to continue after it stopped.
Grammar: With an object: resume work; without: talks will resume on Monday.
Patterns
- resume something
- resume doing something
Play will resume after the rain stops.
She resumed her studies after a year abroad.
The train service resumed at noon.
verbtransitive
To take back a seat or place that you had left.
Grammar: Used with a seat or position as the object.
Patterns
- resume your seat
The speaker asked the guests to resume their seats.
nouncountableAmerican
A document listing a person's education, job history and skills, sent to employers; usually spelled résumé.
Grammar: In American English, a résumé; British English uses CV.
Patterns
- send a resume
- update your resume
I updated my resume before applying.
Her resume lists five years of teaching.
Word forms
| third person singular | resumes |
|---|---|
| past tense | resumed |
| past participle | resumed |
| -ing form | resuming |
| plural | resumes |
Common combinations
- resume normal service
- The bus will resume normal service tomorrow.
- resume talks
- The two sides resumed talks.
- resume work
- He resumed work after lunch.
- resume your seat
- Please resume your seats.
Synonyms and how they differ
- restart
- More casual; can mean starting something from the beginning again.
- continue
- Means to keep going, not necessarily after a stop.
- renew
- Suggests making something fresh or valid again.
Opposites
Word family
- resumption noun
- the act of beginning again
Commonly confused: resume or résumé?
resume vs résumé
The noun with accents is the job document and is pronounced REZ-oo-may; the verb is pronounced ri-ZOOM.
Practice
The meeting will ___ at two o'clock after the lunch break.
Choose one answer.
Resume means start again after a pause. Resign means to leave a job, which does not fit a meeting.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “resume”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.