moment
Americannoun
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moments
plural
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an indefinitely short period of time; instant.
I'll be with you in a moment.
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Usually the moment the present time or any other particular time.
He is busy at the moment.
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a definite period or stage, as in a course of events; juncture.
at this moment in history.
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importance or consequence.
a decision of great moment.
- Synonyms:
- momentousness, magnitude, weight, significance
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a particular time or period of success, excellence, fame, etc..
His big moment came in the final game.
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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.
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Philosophy.
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an aspect of a thing.
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Obsolete. an essential or constituent factor.
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Mechanics.
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a tendency to produce motion, especially about an axis.
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the product of a physical quantity and its directed distance from an axis.
moment of area; moment of mass.
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noun
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a short indefinite period of time
he'll be here in a moment
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a specific instant or point in time
at that moment the doorbell rang
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the present point of time
at the moment it's fine
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import, significance, or value
a man of moment
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physics
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a tendency to produce motion, esp rotation about a point or axis
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the product of a physical quantity, such as force or mass, and its distance from a fixed reference point See also moment of inertia
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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 )
Synonym Usage
See minute 1. See importance.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
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
Explanation
A moment is a particular point in time. Some moments you remember forever: like the moment you earned your driver's license or the moment you learned that you passed your organic chemistry class. A moment is a short, but unspecified, amount of time. At Thanksgiving, you are supposed to take a moment to be grateful for friends and family. Or maybe you have been asked to observe a "moment of silence" for a national tragedy. Moment can also mean "importance." If you say something is "of little moment," then you are saying it doesn't matter.
Vocabulary lists containing moment
Force and Motion (Mechanics) - Middle School
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Words Coined or Popularized by Presidents
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Mechanical Engineering
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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:
Any moment that threatens to turn to cliché, turns another way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Spivey said that her legal team believed for days that she was brain dead, and expected her to be taken off life support at any moment.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Still, Mr. Sun’s jazz speaks most forcefully of this moment, especially in his neighborhood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Land acknowledgements statements, agnosticism, the utility of college education and mixed-race families in commercials all get a moment in the over-stuffed script by Kyle Rankin.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
She clutched her hair in her hands for a moment.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The band is staying true to the songs as they were written and performed without being exactly matchy-matchy on the things that don’t matter but being very certain to land the moments that do.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
"There were several moments that night when I thought I wouldn't see my children again," she recalled.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Repeated moments of connection like these could help strengthen a relationship over time.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
We’ve just got to keep giving ourselves moments, and eventually something will happen.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
He thought of the times he’d seen her in his dreams or the moments when he thought he caught sight of her at the corner of his eye.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
Definitions 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.
