milestone
Americannoun
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milestones
plural
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a stone functioning as a milepost.
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a significant event or stage in the life, progress, development, or the like of a person, nation, etc..
Her getting the job of supervisor was a milestone in her career.
noun
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a stone pillar that shows the distance in miles to or from a place
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a significant event in life, history, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of milestone
Explanation
A milestone is a significant event in your life. Often a milestone marks the start of a new chapter. For example, the day you graduated from high school was a milestone in your life. Milestone literally refers to a roadside marker that lists the distance to a particular location. These days, the word is more often used figuratively to refer to significant events in life, like graduating from college or getting married. It acts sort of like the road sign: it's often a moment when you reflect on where you stand in life. A milestone can also be a nonpersonal event that results in a big change, such as a milestone victory or a company's sales milestone.
Vocabulary lists containing milestone
Prisoner B-3087
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Nelson Mandela "I am Prepared to Die" (1964)
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History is made in PA: Clinton's DNC Acceptance Speech
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The European Central Bank has authorized the takeover of Germany's Commerzbank AG by UniCredit, the Italian bank said Thursday, calling it an "important milestone" that underscored confidence in its bid.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
The milestone caps the 15-year tenure of former CEO Tim Cook, posing a challenge to Apple’s new Chief Executive John Ternus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Buckle up: Small-cap stocks just hit a market milestone they’d rather avoid.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
Scientists have reached a major milestone in the quest to build an entirely new kind of clock.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
The capacity to deal effectively with syphilis and tuberculosis represents a milestone in human endeavor, even though full use of this potential has not yet been made.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
So my message to your letter writer is to be careful about turning a lesson in spending too much into a judgment of people who haven’t hit the same milestones.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
Spanning more than two decades, it is a journey marked by significant achievements and milestones.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
"We had several milestones we had to pass, and at each point, this project could have failed."
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
The agreement is mutually non-exclusive, with each company retaining development and commercial rights and no provisions around royalties, milestones, or revenue- or profit-sharing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
While teachers of preschool children may have a sense of the linguistic milestones for children, they are less aware of the musical milestones.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
