ELAPSES Synonyms: 47 Similar and Opposite Words

elapses

verb

present tense third-person singular of elapse

as in expires

to come to an end in those coin-operated binoculars at scenic areas your viewing time seems to elapse almost before it has begun

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of elapses When that time elapses, items must be removed form the street. —

Matt Schooley, CBS News, 22 Feb. 2026 Longer payouts mean more time elapses between when a jeweler buys a customer’s antique necklace, and when that jeweler receives a check from a refiner. —

Maliya Ellis, Houston Chronicle, 1 Feb. 2026 This cycle elapses across thousands of years—glacially slow to us but almost instantaneous on cosmic scales. —

K. R. Callaway, Scientific American, 24 Jan. 2026 How much time elapses between events, and what time something happens, depends on the observer’s frame of reference. —

Adrian Bardon, The Conversation, 12 Nov. 2025 As the Universe expands, the expansion rate and energy density both do not change, leading to a relentless state where the Universe doubles in size, again and again, each time a certain interval elapses. —

Big Think, 24 Oct. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for elapses

Verb

State law requires a special election the following November to elect a successor to complete the rest of Klobuchar’s current six-year term, which expires in 2030.

— Alex Derosier, Twin Cities, 30 May 2026
With club captain Dani Carvajal leaving as his contract expires, Madrid will lose their captain for the sixth season in a row — following the exits of Ramos (2021), Marcelo (2022), Karim Benzema (2023) Nacho (2024, when Toni Kroos left, too) and Luka Modric (2025, when Lucas Vazquez also departed).

— Guillermo Rai, New York Times, 29 May 2026