moment
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /momən(ʔ)/
ipa: /ˈməʊmənt/
ipa: /ˈmoʊmənt/
ipa: /ˈmolmɛnt/
ipa: /ˈməʊmənt̞/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈmʌo̞mən/
note: Indic
ipa: /mɵˈmɛɳʈ/
note: Indic
ipa: /mʊˈmɛɳʈ/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈmoməɳʈ/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈmumənʈ/
homophone: movement
Forms: form: moments
Etymology: From Middle English moment, from Old French moment, from Latin mōmentum. Doublet of momentum and movement.
Senses: examples: text: ...over everything there lay a deposit of heavy white dust, which was only blown off one moment to thicken on another.
ref: 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 7, third paragraph
glosses: A particular point, or relatively small region.
A particular point of space; a spot.
synonyms: point
spot
examples: text: Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: "You know, we all have our own lives to live. Now and then we get confused, we become weak and vulnerable. We have to look around for help. Sometimes we get lucky and there's someone who loves us to support us, to help us along. We have a right, being human, to those moments of weakness. We have a right to get confused and ask for help. … But when that help is offered and accepted, we don't have a right to remain confused forever, to keep those who help us standing by in a kind of limbo..."
ref: 1976, Richard Duprey, Duel on the Wind, part 4, chapter 1
glosses: A particular point, or relatively small region.
A particular point of time; an instant.
synonyms: word: instant
word: minute
word: instant
word: juncture
word: minute
word: moment
word: occasion
word: point in time
word: sith
word: time
examples: text: Wait a moment, while I lock the front door.
text: Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps,[…], and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.
ref: 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:
synonyms: stound
instant
trice
glosses: A brief, unspecified amount of time.
examples: text: In deep designs, in matter of great moment, / No less importing than our general good.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii], line 67:
text: However, upon a ſtrict Review, I blotted out ſeveral Paſſages of leſs Moment which were in my firſt Copy, for fear of being cenſured as tedious and trifling, whereof Travellers are often, perhaps not without Juſtice, accuſed.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page [176]:
text: The document in question is of such immense importance that its publication might very easily – I might almost say probably – lead to European complications of the utmost moment.
ref: 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Second Stain, Norton, published 2005, page 1192:
text: As to any suggestion that Stroudley's engines were not free-running at high speed, this was of little moment with 60 m.p.h. laid down as the limit at that time.
ref: 1941 May, “Notes and News: William Stroudley”, in Railway Magazine, page 234:
text: Britannia therefore has the advantage over only two classes, the rebuilt "Scots" and the "V2s", and in only two respects, maximum axle load (which is important) and weight of tender (which is of little moment).
ref: 1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 274:
glosses: Weight or importance.
topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
synonyms: torque
glosses: Ellipsis of moment of force.
qualifier: unit
glosses: A definite period of time, specifically one-tenth of a point, or one-fortieth or one-fiftieth of an hour.
topics: medicine
neurology
neuroscience
sciences
glosses: A petit mal episode; such a spell.
glosses: A fit; a brief tantrum.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: An infinitesimal change in a varying quantity; an increment or decrement.
examples: text: If the points represent mass, then the zeroth moment is the total mass, the first moment divided by the total mass is the center of mass, and the second moment is the rotational inertia.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A quantitative measure of the shape of a set of points.
examples: text: woman moment
text: Reddit moment
qualifier: frequently derogatory; usually preceded by a noun; frequently derogatory; usually preceded by a noun
glosses: An embarrassing event, supposed to be characteristic of some person, group, or situation.
examples: text: She’s got a point. She’s an icon, she is a legend, and she is the moment. Now, come on, now. You got to give it up to Kim.
glosses: The current center of public attention and awe; the most important celebrity in their prime.
raw_tags: of a person
Synonyms: word: bat of an eye
word: bit
word: blink of an eye
word: crack
word: eyeblink
word: flash
word: glimpse
word: half a mo
word: instant
word: jiff
word: jiffy
word: jot
word: minute
word: mo
word: moment
word: New York minute
word: New York second
word: no time
word: sec
word: second
word: span
word: split-second
word: spurt
word: stound
word: tick
word: trice
word: twink
word: twinkle
word: twinkling
word: while
Hypernyms: word: period
word: uncertain period
Derived terms: aha! moment
aha moment
any moment now
at a moment's notice
at any given moment
at the last moment
at the moment
at this moment in time
big-lipped alligator moment
blonde moment
blond moment
branding moment
bruh moment
by the moment
Ceausescu moment
Ceaușescu moment
central moment
Condor moment
defining moment
dipole moment
driveway moment
eureka moment
flashbulb moment
for the moment
moment to moment
this moment on
Hallmark moment
have a moment
having a moment
heated gamer moment
heated gaming moment
Hollywood moment
in the heat of the moment
in the moment
iPhone moment
Kodak moment
last moment
light-bulb moment
live in the moment
London moment
macaca moment
magic moment
magnetic moment
Mal Meninga moment
Meninga moment
man of the moment
mask-off moment
melting moment
Minsky moment
Mintie moment
moist moment
moment arm
momentary
moment by moment
momentful
moment-generating function
moment in the sun
momentless
momently
moment magnitude scale
moment of clarity
moment of force
moment of glory
moment of inertia
moment of silence
moment of truth
momentous
momentously
momentousness
never a dull moment
nigger moment
not a moment too soon
of the moment
one moment
on the spur of the moment
Perry Mason moment
polar moment of inertia
Portillo moment
Proustian moment
pseudomoment
psychological moment
Ratatouille moment
Ratner moment
recovery moment
second moment of area
second moment of inertia
seismic moment
senior moment
single-minded branding moment
Sister Souljah moment
spin magnetic moment
spur of the moment
spur-of-the-moment
Sputnik moment
supreme moment
teachable moment
timeless moment
tumbleweed moment
watershed moment
Related terms: word: torque
word: in two shakes
word: Planck time
word: ephemeral
word: temporarily
word: transience