moonshot
Americannoun
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the act or procedure of launching a rocket or spacecraft to the moon.
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a very challenging and innovative project or undertaking.
Technology companies are investing in moonshots that address the world’s greatest problems.
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Baseball. a high-velocity home run in which the ball reaches an extraordinary height.
What could be more exciting than a bases-clearing moonshot over the right field wall in the bottom of the eleventh inning?
adjective
noun
Etymology
Origin of moonshot
An Americanism dating back to 1945–50 moonshot for def. 1; moon + shot 1; the baseball sense, also capitalized as Moon shot, was named after Wallace Wade “Wally” Moon (1930–2018), U.S. baseball player, whose home run helped the Dodgers win the 1959 pennant
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.
The team set a moonshot goal: developing a single, universal protein “minibinder” that could neutralize five dominant scorpion neurotoxins across different species.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
A fledgling startup is making a moonshot bid to take on Boeing, currently America’s only major maker of commercial airliners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
A couple of derivatives-market experts told MarketWatch that, given the heavy volume, these contracts were likely being used to help manage risk, rather than to play for a moonshot payoff.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026
But just as the technology seemed poised to move from moonshot to mainstream, customer complaints started coming in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
Also in 2020, Google pledged to run on carbon-free energy by 2030, in what CEO Sundar Pichai heralded as a "moonshot."
From Barron's
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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.
