moment

From Middle English moment, from Old French moment, from Latin mōmentum. Doublet of momentum and movement.

• (MLE) IPA^(key): /momən(ʔ)/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈməʊmənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmoʊmənt/, /ˈmolmɛnt/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈməʊmənt̞/
  • (Dublin) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌo̞mən/

• Audio (US):

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• (Indic) IPA^(key): /mɵˈmɛɳʈ/, /mʊˈmɛɳʈ/, /ˈmoməɳʈ/, /ˈmumənʈ/
  • (dialectal) Homophone: movement
• Hyphenation: mo‧ment

moment (countable and uncountable, plural moments)

1. A particular point, or relatively small region.
   1. A particular point of space; a spot.

      Synonyms: point, spot

      • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 7, third paragraph:

        ...over everything there lay a deposit of heavy white dust, which was only blown off one moment to thicken on another.

   2. A particular point of time; an instant.

      Synonyms: instant, minute; see also Thesaurus:point in time

      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

        Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

      • 1976, Richard Duprey, Duel on the Wind , part 4, chapter 1:

        "You know, we all have our own lives to live. Now and then we get confused, we become weak and vulnerable. We have to look around for help. Sometimes we get lucky and there's someone who loves us to support us, to help us along. We have a right, being human, to those moments of weakness. We have a right to get confused and ask for help. [...] But when that help is offered and accepted, we don't have a right to remain confused forever, to keep those who help us standing by in a kind of limbo..."

2. A brief, unspecified amount of time.

   Synonyms: stound, instant, trice; see also Thesaurus:moment

   Wait a moment, while I lock the front door.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, […] , and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.

   • 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:

     Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

3. (figurative) Weight or importance.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii], line 67:

     In deep designs, in matter of great moment, / No less importing than our general good.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page [176]:

     However, upon a ſtrict Review, I blotted out ſeveral Paſſages of leſs Moment which were in my firſt Copy, for fear of being cenſured as tedious and trifling, whereof Travellers are often, perhaps not without Juſtice, accuſed.

   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Second Stain, Norton, published 2005, page 1192:

     The document in question is of such immense importance that its publication might very easily – I might almost say probably – lead to European complications of the utmost moment.

   • 1941 May, “Notes and News: William Stroudley”, in Railway Magazine, page 234:

     As to any suggestion that Stroudley's engines were not free-running at high speed, this was of little moment with 60 m.p.h. laid down as the limit at that time.

   • 1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 274:

     Britannia therefore has the advantage over only two classes, the rebuilt "Scots" and the "V2s", and in only two respects, maximum axle load (which is important) and weight of tender (which is of little moment).

4. (physics, mechanics) Ellipsis of moment of force.

   Synonym: torque

5. (historical, unit) A definite period of time, specifically one-tenth of a point, or one-fortieth or one-fiftieth of an hour.
6. (neurology, informal) A petit mal episode; such a spell.
7. (colloquial) A fit; a brief tantrum.
8. (mathematics) An infinitesimal change in a varying quantity; an increment or decrement.
9. (mathematics) A quantitative measure of the shape of a set of points.

   If the points represent mass, then the zeroth moment is the total mass, the first moment divided by the total mass is the center of mass, and the second moment is the rotational inertia.

10. (Internet slang, frequently derogatory, usually preceded by a noun) An embarrassing event, supposed to be characteristic of some person, group, or situation.

    woman moment

    Reddit moment

11. (colloquial, Internet slang, of a person) The current center of public attention and awe; the most important celebrity in their prime.

    She’s got a point. She’s an icon, she is a legend, and she is the moment. Now, come on, now. You got to give it up to Kim.

• → Malay: momen

• torque

• 1897 Universal Dictionary of the English Language, v 3 p 3174. ("The smallest portion of time; an instant." is a direct quote from this Dictionary.)

• moment on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• montem

Borrowed from Latin mōmentum.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [muˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [moˈment]

• Audio (Catalonia):

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• Rhymes: -ent

moment m (plural moments)

1. moment (specific instant or time)

   […] el català, malgrat tot, viu un moment de glòria efímera durant els darrers anys del segle XVIII i primers del XIX.

   Catalan, in spite of everything, had a moment of ephemeral glory in the last years of the 18th century and the first ones of the 19th.

• de moment
• momentet

• “moment”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “moment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “moment” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “moment” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmomɛnt]

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moment m inan

1. moment (specific instant or time)

• See motiv

• “moment”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “moment”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

From Middle Dutch moment, from Middle French moment, from Latin momentum.

• IPA^(key): /moːˈmɛnt/

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• Hyphenation: mo‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

moment n (plural momenten, diminutive momentje n)

1. moment (very brief period of time)

   Synonym: ogenblik

2. (physics) moment of force, moment

   Synonym: krachtmoment

• Afrikaans: moment
• → Indonesian: momen

From Latin mōmentum.

• IPA^(key): /mɔ.mɑ̃/

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moment m (plural moments)

1. moment (point in time)
2. moment (short period of time)
3. a while

   Ça fait un moment que je l'attends

   I've been waiting for him for a while

4. (physics, mechanics) moment, momentum

• → Persian: ممان (momân)

• instant

• “moment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Latin mōmentum.

moment m (plural moments)

1. moment, instant

From Latin momentum, from movere.

• IPA^(key): /mʊˈmɛnt/

moment n (definite singular momentet, indefinite plural moment, definite plural momenta)

1. element, variable, contributing factor or circumstance

   Det er mange moment som spelar inn her.

   There are many variables at play here.

2. (physics) moment of force

• “moment” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Latin mōmentum.

• Audio (Béarn):

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moment m (plural moments)

1. moment

Learned borrowing from Latin mōmentum.^[1][2][3] First attested in 1592.^[4]

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• Rhymes: -ɔmɛnt
• Syllabification: mo‧ment

moment m inan (diminutive momencik)

1. moment (short period of time)

   Synonym: chwila

2. moment (specific point or period in time)

   Synonym: chwila

3. moment (short period of development or continuance of something) [with w (+ locative) ‘in what’]
4. (physics) moment (turning effect of a force applied to a rotational system at a distance from the axis of rotation)

   moment bezwładności ― moment of inertia

   moment gnący / moment zginający ― bending moment

   moment pędu ― angular momentum, moment of momentum

   moment siły ― moment of force

   moment skręcający ― twisting moment

5. (film, humorous, television) sex scene (segment in a movie in which characters have sex)
6. (obsolete, mathematics) moment (infinitesimal change in a varying quantity; an increment or decrement)

moment

1. (colloquial) wait a minute, wait a moment, wait a second (used when the speaker expects to refrain from speaking or acting for a short time)

   Synonyms: chwila, chwila moment, chwileczkę, momencik

• → Kashubian: mòment, mòmeńt
• → Silesian: mōmynt

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), moment is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 12 times in scientific texts, 11 times in news, 16 times in essays, 37 times in fiction, and 15 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 91 times, making it the 701st most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.^[5]

• moment in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• moment in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• “MOMENT”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 13.10.2008
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814), “moment”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861), “moment”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1902), “moment”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 2, Warsaw, page 1034

Borrowed from French moment, from Latin mōmentum.

• IPA^(key): /moˈment/

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ent
• Hyphenation: mo‧ment

moment n (plural momente)

1. moment (brief length of time)

   de moment ― momentary

   pentru un moment ― for a moment

2. moment (definite point in time)

   în momentul de față ― at the present moment

3. the time, the right moment

   Nu e momentul pentru așa ceva.

   Now’s not the time for such things.

   A sosit momentul.

   The time has come.

4. (mechanics, physics) moment, momentum
5. short literary composition which captures an episode of daily life, a genre notably cultivated by Ion Luca Caragiale

• momental
• momentos

• momentan

• “moment”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026
• Iorgu Iordan, Alexandru Graur, Ion Coteanu, editors (1965), Dicționarul Limbii Române‎^[3], volume 6, Bucharest: Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, pages 829–830

From Latin momentum.

moment n

1. a step in a process

   Nästa moment blir att föra in stavarna i kärnreaktorn

   The next step will be to insert the rods into the nuclear reactor

   ett kritiskt moment

   a critical step

   hinderbanans armgångsmoment

   the monkey bars section of the obstacle course (the monkey bars step in the process of getting through the obstacle course)

2. an independent part of some (abstract) whole; an element, a factor
3. (physics) moment

• moment 22
• orosmoment
• överraskningsmoment

• moment in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• moment in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• moment in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔmɛnt/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈmoːmɛnt/, /ˈmɔmɛnt/

moment m (plural momentau)

1. (physics) moment

• moment ddeubol (“dipole moment”)
• moment momentwm (“moment of momentum”)