Halt

How to spell halt

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce halt

What does halt mean?

1. verbTo stop or cause to stop moving or proceeding.
2. nounA sudden or temporary stop in movement or activity.

Halt in a sentence

• verb

  The police ordered the convoy to halt at the border.

• noun

  The negotiations came to a sudden halt over the wage dispute.

• verb

  A power cut can halt production for an entire shift.

• noun

  Heavy snow brought the morning commute to a complete halt.

Where does halt come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the German military command 'halt', which was the imperative of halten, meaning 'to hold' or 'to stop'. It entered English in the 1500s through the phrase 'to make halt', a translation of the German 'Halt machen', used by soldiers to mean coming to a standstill. The Germanic root behind it is the same one that gives English 'hold', since stopping a march was originally a matter of holding the line in place. Over time the noun and the verb both settled into everyday English well beyond the parade ground, covering any sudden stop in motion or activity. The spelling is mercifully phonetic, with the silent suggestion of the 'l' fully pronounced, which keeps it from being a serious trap.

How the word is built

• halt (a single root; from German Halt 'stop', related to halten 'to hold')