teachable moment
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of teachable moment
First recorded in 1935–40
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.
“But each disaster is a teachable moment, and I’m afraid the defensive tone of this report suggests a limited institutional capacity to learn from bitter experience.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
That line stayed with me when I spoke to Gregory Rogers, a criminal-justice lecturer and former FBI agent who’s been trying to turn the assassination into a teachable moment.
From Slate • Oct. 30, 2025
This should be a teachable moment, the adulting equivalent of an afterschool special.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 26, 2025
It’s a bit cliché, but this must become a teachable moment.
From Salon • Jan. 21, 2025
When Sarah and Daniel and I run through our allowances and ask to borrow money from our folks, we get a huge lecture, and then they make it a teachable moment.
From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen
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.
