The term 'pause indicator' refers to punctuation marks used to indicate a pause in a sentence. The two most common pause indicators are the semicolon (9 letters) and the COMMA (5 letters). The semicolon is used to separate two independent clauses, while the COMMA is used to separate items in a list or to indicate a pause in a sentence. Both punctuation marks are used to indicate a pause in a sentence, but the semicolon is used to indicate a longer pause than the COMMA.