pace

Pronunciation- and spelling-wise, I've very little to say about this word. It's downright boring in that respect. Maybe that's apt; it's little more than a single note in a sentence's tune, one boring beat worth noting only for the time it takes to say it, and in terms of meaning, that's about right. The pace is the rate, the rhythm of something, and by not intruding upon the rate or rhythm of its surroundings, perhaps the word reinforces them. A pace can often impose order where there is little; and so, when we are nervous, we pace. Walking to and fro, constantly and steadily, we try to impose order where there is chaos, providing a physical backdrop of consistency and regularity for our disorganized and difficult thoughts in the mental foreground.

A hint regarding the theme: "Homophone" is a word that will apply to three of the words this week and how they fit into the theme. (But not today's.)