pause is, in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary's words, "a period of time during which somebody stops talking or stops what they are doing"; as a verb, Oxford defines it as "to stop talking or doing something for a short time before continuing."
The Cambridge Dictionary defines the noun as "a short period in which something such as a sound or an activity is stopped before starting again," and the verb as "to stop doing something for a short time, or to make something stop for a short time." Both dictionaries also record the control on a player: Oxford's "a control that allows you to stop a video, etc. for a short time" and Cambridge's "a button or control that allows you to stop a recording for a short time." In music, Cambridge gives a specialized sense, "a symbol in music meaning that a note or rest should be held for longer than normal."
Oxford lists two idioms under the noun. To give (somebody) pause, a formal phrase, is "to make somebody think seriously about something or hesitate before doing something." A 📝pregnant pause is "an occasion when nobody speaks, although people are aware that there are feelings or thoughts to express."
Oxford traces pause to late Middle English, "from Old French, from Latin pausa, from Greek pausis, from pausein 'to stop'."
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~ 📝Viktor E. Frankl