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December 12

"momentary lapse in judgment" vs "momentary lapse of judgment"

Which one of the two is better?

Both seems to be in active use, but I can't tell which one is more grammatical or which one sounds better. Or maybe there's no real difference. Liberté2 (talk) 02:22, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think which one sounds better likely depends a considerable amount on the phonotactics of the surrounding phrase.

To me, a lapse of judgement has hints of an isolated incident in an otherwise solid "block" of judgement, while a lapse in judgement sounds more like an emergent interruption in a "flow" that may be part of a greater interruptive pattern. But these connotations are exceedingly minor and likely rather specific to my particular idiolect. Remsense留 02:39, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This will be one of those cases where it depends on local usage. Both are "correct". I feel more comfortable with the "in" version. But I'm far from the centre of global English usage, in Melbourne, Australia. HiLo48 (talk) 02:53, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Until late last century lapse of judgement was more popular, but it was overtaken by lapse in judgement in the 90s.^[1] --Lambiam 09:50, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In contrast, lapse of memory remains considerably more popular than lapse in memory.^[2] But lapse in coverage beats lapse of coverage.^[3] --Lambiam 10:01, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Liberté2 Collins suggests "lapse" is a countable noun, and prefers "lapse of". (There are other meanings for "lapse".) As others have said above, context and location are considerations. See also wikt:Judgment: Spelling. Bazza (talk) 10:10, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"Lapse in judgement" looks to me like a lapse of the pen, or sounds like a lapse of the tongue, or is a lapse of taste, perhaps indicative of a lapse of reason. DuncanHill (talk) 10:21, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Records indicate that as of 2018, roughly 22‰ of lapses are momentary, up from 9.5‰ in 2000. Folly Mox (talk) 14:08, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And then there are the momentous lapses, without a discernible trend. --Lambiam 20:28, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, everyone. Liberté2 (talk) 00:25, 13 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved