How to pronounce stagger
American English pronunciation
STAG-ur
- IPA
- /ˈstæɡɚ/
- Syllables
- STAG · ur (2 syllables, stress on the 1st)
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What stagger means
Most people know stagger in its everyday sense. Here's its other meaning.
To spread out start times so they do not all overlap
In a sentence: The school likes to stagger lunch times so the lunchroom never gets too crowded.
Where it comes from: It comes from an old word meaning to walk unsteadily, which goes back to an Old Norse word for pushing or stumbling. The meaning of spreading things out over time was in use by 1856.
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