hesitates
SayHEZ-uh-taytsUS/ˈhɛz.ə.teɪts/AUS/ˈhez.ə.tæɪts/UKHEZ-i-tayts/ˈhɛz.ɪ.teɪts/
- 1Third-person singular simple present of hesitate.
He hesitates at the doorway, unsure whether he is welcome inside.
The committee never hesitates to reject a weak proposal.
Note
The -s form carries every sense of the verb, and nearly all of them are intransitive: someone hesitates over a choice, or hesitates in speech, faltering mid-sentence. A rare, poetic use is transitive and takes the thing said as its object (she hesitates her answer). It means to say something haltingly, or to hint at it through a reluctant manner. In everyday prose, keep it intransitive.
hesitates is a form of hesitate
hesitate, verb: To pause before acting or deciding, held back by uncertainty or doubt. Full entry
- Forms
- hesitatehesitates he/she/ithesitating -ing formhesitated past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- hesitate → hesitates: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /s/.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with hesitates, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.