DictionaryAI

resume

REZ-uh-may/ˈɹɛz.ə.meɪ/UKREZ-yuu-may/ˈɹɛz.(j)ʊˌmeɪ/
As a verbri-ZOOM

Pluralresumes

Verbresumes, resuming, resumed

6 meanings of resume

Practice

  1. 1
    nounAustraliaCanadaPhilippinesUScountable
    A summary of a person's education, work experience, and qualifications, usually prepared for a potential employer when applying for a job.

    He tailored his resume to highlight the experience most relevant to the position.

    Recruiters often spend less than a minute scanning each resume.

    SimilarCV

    Note

    The job-hunting specialization of the general "summary" noun. It is used chiefly in the US, Canada, Australia and the Philippines, where curriculum vitae and CV are synonyms for the same document. On the page, the accented spellings résumé and resumé mark it as the noun and keep it apart from the verb. The plain spelling resume is also standard.

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To begin something again, from the point at which it was stopped or paused, and carry it on.

    The pilot resumed the descent once the storm had passed.

    We will resume negotiations after both sides have reviewed the proposal.

    Similarcontinue, restart, recommence, reopen

    Oppositesuspend

    Note

    Its natural opposite is suspend: talks or a descent are suspended and later resumed from where they stopped. The object can also be something laid aside rather than interrupted. In William Woodfall's Parliamentary Register (1803), a speaker thinks the Prince would gain more honor by giving up the trappings of royalty than by resuming them. That use sits close to the older "take back" meaning.

  3. 3
    verbintransitive
    To begin again following an interruption or pause.

    Normal service resumed once the power came back on.

    Trading will resume when markets open on Monday.

    Similarrestart, continue, recommence

    Oppositestop, pause, halt

    Note

    Here the activity itself is the subject: service, trading or operations resume, and no one needs to be named as doing it. That impersonal construction suits announcements and regulations. The Code of Federal Regulations (1991) requires a bond to be increased "before operations resume." When a person is the subject, English usually reaches for the transitive use and supplies an object: we resumed the meeting.

  4. 4
    nouncountable
    A summary or synopsis of something, giving its main points in brief.

    He opened the lecture with a brief resume of the previous session.

    The article includes a resume of the committee's main recommendations.

    Similarsummary, synopsis, outline, precis, recap

    Note

    A separate, later borrowing from French. Résumé is the past participle of résumer, so the word means literally "something summarized." The verb came into English earlier, through Anglo-Norman, from the same Latin source. Writers have handled the accents freely. F.J. Thwaites's The Redemption (1936) prints resumé, with one accent, for the recap of a serial's earlier installments. Précis is a near synonym.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    verbarchaictransitive
    To summarize something, presenting its substance in condensed form.

    The clerk resumed the lengthy testimony in three short sentences.

    Allow me to resume the evidence before the jury retires.

    Note

    A rare, old-fashioned meaning that modern readers easily mistake for "pick up again." In Lawrence Durrell's Monsieur (1974), a man plans to resume his knowledge of death in a philosophic essay, meaning to sum it up. The French verb résumer, "to summarize," also gave English the noun for a summary. Unless the context makes the meaning unmistakable, summarize is the safer choice.

  2. 6
    verbarchaictransitive
    To take back possession of something previously granted or held.

    The crown moved to resume the estates once held by the rebel lords.

    As to the advice you give, to resume my estate, I am determined not to litigate with my father, let what will be the consequence to myself.
    1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa

    Similarregain

    Note

    The oldest sense keeps the Latin almost literally: re- plus sumere, "to take", so "to take back." Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (1748) has a character refuse to litigate to resume an estate. Property law still uses it, and the act is called resumption: Geoff Moore's Essential Real Property (2005) describes a government resuming land for a road or a school. Outside such contexts it now sounds archaic, though "please resume your seats" keeps a faint trace.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 2–3, 5–6

From Anglo-Norman resumer and Middle French resumer, from Latin resumere, formed from re- plus sumere ('to take').

Meanings 1, 4

Borrowed from French résumé, the past participle of résumer ('to summarize'), from Latin resūmere ('to take back').