moment

[moh-muhnt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR moment ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

the present time or any other particular time (usually preceded by the): 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.

Origin of moment

1300–50; Middle English < Latin mōmentum motion, cause of motion, hence, influence, importance, essential factor, moment of time, equivalent to mō- (variant stem of movēre to move) + -mentum -ment

Synonyms for moment

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR moment ON THESAURUS.COM

1. second, jiffy, trice, flash, twinkling. See minute¹. 4. significance, weight, gravity. See importance.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for moment

point, flash, juncture, time, date, occasion, bit, minute, stage, hour, note, breathing, instant, wink, crack, twinkle, while, twinkling, jiffy, second

Examples from the Web for moment

Contemporary Examples of moment

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
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
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
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
At such a moment, the pilot has no resources other than his own instincts and experience.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?
Clive Irving
January 4, 2015

Historical Examples of moment

From the first moment you spoke, I have felt this mysterious power.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
Philothea had listened so earnestly, that for a moment all other thoughts were expelled from her mind.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
In this holy atmosphere we paused for a moment in silent reverence.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
Philæmon averted his face for a moment, and struggled hard with his feelings.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
A moment later Percival remembered his last words, also his reference to Blythe.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson

British Dictionary definitions for moment

moment

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

Word Origin and History for moment

mid-14c., "very brief portion of time, instant," in moment of time, from Old French moment (12c.) "moment, minute; importance, weight, value" or directly from Latin momentum "movement, motion; moving power; alteration, change;" also "short time, instant" (also source of Spanish, Italian momento), contraction of *movimentum, from movere "to move" (see move (v.)). Some (but not OED) explain the sense evolution of the Latin word by notion of a particle so small it would just "move" the pointer of a scale, which led to the transferred sense of "minute time division." Sense of "importance, 'weight' " is attested in English from 1520s.

Phrase never a dull moment first recorded 1889 in Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat." Phrase moment of truth first recorded 1932 in Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon," from Spanish el momento de la verdad, the final sword-thrust in a bull-fight.

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