aha moment

American

noun

Informal.

a point in time, event, or experience when one has a sudden insight or realization.

My aha moment was when I put on my shorts from last summer and they didn’t fit.

aha moment British

noun

an instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of aha moment

From the expression aha, used to signal sudden awareness or comprehension

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.

Her big aha moment came after meeting with Janine Kyrillos, director of the Comprehensive Weight Management Program at Jefferson Health in Pennsylvania.

From Slate • Jul. 20, 2024

Mindy Jensen, a host of financial podcast “BiggerPockets Money,” had an aha moment with Sethi when she was a guest on his podcast.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 18, 2023

And just the way she all of a sudden had like this aha moment of, “Wait, if you could cheat on Ariana, could you cheat on me?”

From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2023

“And it was this aha moment, where I finally, for the first time, after a life of being around motorcycles, designed a bike that was not for a customer.”

From New York Times • May 11, 2022

But when the clinician explained that he was referring to "people, place, and purpose," Insel had an aha moment.

From Salon • Apr. 17, 2022

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023