moment

[ moh-muhnt ]

/ ˈmoʊ mənt /

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See synonyms for: moment / moments on Thesaurus.com

noun

an indefinitely short period of time; instant: I'll be with you in a moment.

Usually the moment . the present time or any other particular time: He is busy at the moment.

a definite period or stage, as in a course of events;juncture: at this moment in history.

importance or consequence: a decision of great moment.

a particular time or period of success, excellence, fame, etc.: His big moment came in the final game.

Statistics. the mean or expected value of the product formed by multiplying together a set of one or more variates or variables each to a specified power.

Philosophy.

an aspect of a thing.
Obsolete. an essential or constituent factor.

Mechanics.

a tendency to produce motion, especially about an axis.
the product of a physical quantity and its directed distance from an axis: moment of area; moment of mass.

OTHER WORDS FOR moment

1 second, jiffy, trice, flash, twinkling.

4 significance, weight, magnitude, momentousness.

See synonyms for moment on Thesaurus.com

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Origin of moment

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, Middle French, from Latin mōmentum “motion, cause of motion,” hence, “influence, importance, essential factor, moment of time,” from movimentum (unattested), equivalent to mō- (variant stem of the verb movēre move) + -mentum -ment

synonym study for moment

1. See minute¹. 4. See importance.

Words nearby moment

mom, Momaday, mom-and-pop, Mombasa, mome, moment, momentarily, momentary, momently, momento, moment of inertia

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use moment in a sentence

You’ve got to play in the moment, and we’re really good at that.
College basketball’s kingdoms have gone haywire — in case you just started paying attention|Chuck Culpepper|February 12, 2021|Washington Post
There have been some moments where I was able to take a step back and look at all that’s happened.
Matthew Hoppe was a little-known American soccer player — until he reached the Bundesliga|Steven Goff|February 11, 2021|Washington Post
From José Feliciano at the 1968 World Series to Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl in 1991, from moments both roiling and patriotic, there is a tradition here, and stripping sports of that feels too of the moment, too quick.
The pregame national anthem — in all its roiling contradictions — still has something to offer|Barry Svrluga|February 11, 2021|Washington Post
I’d like to thank my boys out here for doing everything right and getting us to this moment.
For this college football team, covid means the season starts in February — with Senior Day|Glynn A. Hill|February 11, 2021|Washington Post

Neither at the moment, though my three-year plan involves adopting a cat!
Meet D.C.’s Most Eligible LGBTQ Singles|Staff reports|February 11, 2021|Washington Blade
In that country at that moment, the Catholics have practically disappeared.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But Krauss said that from the moment he and the other scientists arrived on the island, they never saw anything untoward.
Sleazy Billionaire’s Double Life Featured Beach Parties With Stephen Hawking|M.L. Nestel|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The massacre of cartoonists at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo is a crystallizing moment.
Why We Stand With Charlie Hebdo—And You Should Too|John Avlon|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
At the moment, the only chance I get is when I go do Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
And then I met him before I started doing the impression of him when he was a guest on SNL for a moment.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
He was too drowsy to hold the thought more than a moment in his mind, much less to reflect upon it.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
They are very urgent questions; our sons and daughters will have to begin to deal with them from the moment they leave college.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Her eyes, for a moment, fixed themselves with a horrid conviction of a wide and nameless treachery.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
The thought seemed to produce the dreaded object, for next moment a large hummock appeared right ahead.
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne
At this moment an extraordinary commotion began among the watches.
Davy and The Goblin|Charles E. Carryl

British Dictionary definitions for moment

moment

/ (ˈməʊmənt) /

noun

a short indefinite period of timehe'll be here in a moment

a specific instant or point in timeat that moment the doorbell rang

the moment the present point of timeat the moment it's fine

import, significance, or valuea man of moment

physics

a tendency to produce motion, esp rotation about a point or axis
the product of a physical quantity, such as force or mass, and its distance from a fixed reference pointSee also moment of inertia

statistics the mean of a specified power of the deviations of all the values of a variable in its frequency distribution. The power of the deviations indicates the order of the moment and the deviations may be from the origin (giving a moment about the origin) or from the mean (giving a moment about the mean)

Word Origin for moment

C14: from Old French, from Latin mōmentum, from movēre to move

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with moment

moment

In addition to the idiom beginning with moment

moment of truth

also see:

at this point (moment)
every minute (moment) counts
for the moment
have one's moments
just a minute (moment)
live for the moment
never a dull moment
not for a moment
of the moment
on the spur of the moment
weak moment

moment

OTHER WORDS FOR moment

Origin of moment

synonym study for moment

Words nearby moment

Words related to moment

How to use moment in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for moment

Word Origin for moment

Other Idioms and Phrases with moment