Other forms: moments
A moment is a very short piece of time — a breath, a blink, gone before you have noticed it. 'Wait a moment.' 'One moment, please.' The moment the lights went out and the whole street went quiet.
Moment also means a particular point in time, and that is where most of its phrases live: at the moment (right now), for the moment (for now), at any moment, and the moment (that) meaning as soon as — 'call me the moment you land'. A moment can be weighty rather than short: a proud moment, a defining moment, her moment of glory. Physics borrows the word for something else entirely, the turning effect of a force about a point, so a long spanner gives you a bigger moment than your fingers do. Careful with the two adjectives that grow out of it: momentary means lasting a moment, momentous means enormously important, and swapping them changes everything.
1nouninstantA very short period of time.~8%
“Give me a moment to find my keys.”
2nounparticularA particular point in time.~15%
“He arrived at the exact moment the rain started.”
3nounoccasionAn occasion worth remembering for what happened in it.~2%
“Winning that race was the proudest moment of her life.”
4nounmomentIn physics, the turning effect of a force about a point.~75%
“A longer spanner gives a greater moment, so the bolt shifts more easily.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 13 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
moment is a stretch of time.
Also accepted in games: instant
Moment came through Middle English and Old French from Latin mōmentum — the same Latin word that reached English twice more, as momentum and as movement. Three English words from one Latin parent, and only moment kept its eye fixed on time.
Latin
mōmentum
Old French
moment
Middle English
moment
English, today
moment
From Middle English moment, from Old French moment, from Latin mōmentum. a doublet of momentum and movement.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA