an indefinitely short period of time; instant: I'll be with you in a moment.
Usually the moment . the present time or any other particular time: 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
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
SYNONYMS FOR moment
1 second, jiffy, trice, flash, twinkling.
4 significance, weight, magnitude, momentousness.
SEE SYNONYMS FOR moment ON THESAURUS.COM
synonym study for moment
1. See minute1. 4. See importance.
Words nearby moment
mom, Momaday, mom-and-pop, Mombasa, mome, moment, momentarily, momentary, momently, momento, moment of inertia
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
And that would have been the moment for Lynch to turn his back.
Funeral Protest Is Too Much for NYPD Union Boss|Michael Daly|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In the porch he paused a moment, to draw on his woollen gloves, and button his great coat, and for something besides.
Gifts of Genius|Various
This is the moment, therefore, for us to frame our inexorable resolution.
The Wrack of the Storm|Maurice Maeterlinck
After the first moment she did not look at Julian; she looked away from him out of the window.
The Second Fiddle|Phyllis Bottome
They stood so for a moment, hands gripped, eyes pointed steadily into eyes.
To Him That Hath|Leroy Scott
When Gwynne and Isabel descended the steps and stood looking down upon the scene for a moment, the younger people were dancing.
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton
British Dictionary definitions for moment
moment
/ (ˈməʊmənt) /
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 momentthe 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
statisticsthe 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