defer.
To delay or postpone.
Meaning & usage
To delay or postpone.
We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.
To delay or postpone. to postpone induction into military service.
After winning the opening coin toss, to postpone until the start of the second half a team's choice of whether to kick off or receive (and to allow the opposing team to make this choice at the start of the first half).
To delay, to wait.
Where this word comes from
Originally a variant of (and hence a doublet of) differ; from Middle English differren (“to postpone”), from Old French differer, from Latin differō. Doublet of differ and dilate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, relate and refer as well as prelate and prefer among others.
To submit to the opinion or desire of others in respect to their judgment or authority.
To render, to offer.
Where this word comes from
From late Middle English differren (“to refer for judgement”), from Middle French déférer, from Latin dēferō. Doublet of delate. See also infer, collate and confer, relate and refer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.
Try it on your idea.
defer has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.