moment
Pluralmoments
- 1A specific point in time, thought of as a single instant.
He knew the moment had come to make his decision.
From the moment of takeoff, the flight was perfectly smooth.
UsageAt that moment points to a time already mentioned; at the moment means now. The moment + clause means as soon as.
- 2A brief, unspecified amount of time; a short while.
Give me a moment to gather my thoughts before we begin.
For a moment, the whole room fell completely silent.
UsageWith a and for: wait a moment, for a moment; just a moment asks someone to wait.
Note
Here the moment is a duration rather than a point: a stretch you can wait out or spend.
- 3A period when a person or thing is at the peak of public attention and admiration.
The young director is having a moment after her film swept the awards.
Plant-based food is having a moment, with new vegan cafes opening every month.
UsageUsually having a moment: plant-based food is having a moment.
- 4A brief fit of strong emotion, such as anger or distress.
Dad had a moment when he saw the dent in the car.
I had a little moment after reading the bad news, but I'm fine now.
UsageUsually have a moment or be having a moment; of a trend, the same phrase means it is popular.
- 5Short for moment of force: the turning effect of a force about a point, equal to the force times its perpendicular distance from that point.
Engineers calculated the moment acting on the beam at its support.
A longer wrench gives you a bigger moment on a stuck bolt.
UsageUsed with about: the moment about a support.
Note
Engineering's everyday shorthand for moment of force, the turning effect a force has about an axis. It equals the force multiplied by the perpendicular distance to that axis, so a longer lever gives a larger moment for the same push. Torque names the same quantity.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- A moment of force measures the turning effect of a force about a point or axis. web.mit.edu
- The moment's magnitude equals the force multiplied by the perpendicular lever arm, measured from the force's line of action. engineeringstatics.org
- A longer lever arm produces a larger moment for the same force. openstax.org
- Torque and moment of force name the same quantity. learninglab.rmit.edu.au
Less common meanings
- 6An embarrassing event regarded as typical of a particular person, group, or situation.
Posting that typo to the whole company was a peak intern moment.
I had a senior moment and put the milk in the cupboard.
UsageA describing word or noun goes before moment: a senior moment, an intern moment. Aimed at a group, it can sound insulting.
- 7Importance or weight; the significance attached to something.
These are questions of real moment to the entire community.
He treated the dispute as a matter of no moment whatsoever.
UsageUsually of + adjective + moment: of great moment, of little moment, of no moment. It sounds formal.
Similarimportance, significance, consequence, weight
Oppositeinsignificance, unimportance, triviality
Note
Shakespeare's Richard III has of great moment, Swift has of less moment, Conan Doyle has of the utmost moment, and the Railway Magazine of 1941 has of little moment.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Shakespeare’s Richard III contains “of great moment”; Buckingham speaks the words in Act III, scene VII. gutenberg.org
- Jonathan Swift uses “of less moment” in Gulliver’s Travels, in Gulliver’s narration. gutenberg.org
- Arthur Conan Doyle uses “of the utmost moment” in The Adventure of the Second Stain; the fictional Prime Minister speaks the words. gutenberg.org
- Railway Magazine contains “of little moment” in its May 1941 issue, page 234. en.wiktionary.org
- 8A quantitative measure describing the shape of a set of points or a distribution.
The second moment about the mean equals the variance of the distribution.
Higher-order moments capture skewness and the heaviness of the tails.
Note
Counted in ordinals: the zeroth, first and second moment. When the points stand for mass, the zeroth moment is the total mass, and the first divided by it gives the center of mass. The second is rotational inertia, which is why the term sits so close to the turning-force sense. In statistics, the second moment about the mean gives the variance.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- For a mass distribution, the zeroth moment is total mass. courses.physics.illinois.edu
- The first mass moment divided by total mass gives the center of mass. openstax.org
- The second mass moment gives the moment of inertia. math.libretexts.org
- Variance is the second moment about the mean. pages.stat.wisc.edu
- 9An infinitely small increase or decrease in a quantity that is varying.
Note
A word from the early calculus. In Newton's method of fluxions, the moment of a flowing quantity is the infinitesimal amount it gains or loses in an indefinitely small interval, a forerunner of the modern differential. The image is temporal: a quantity changing across a vanishing instant. Because a moment can be an increment or a decrement, it may carry either sign.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Moment belongs to early calculus and denotes an infinitesimal change in a flowing quantity over an indefinitely small interval. e-rara.ch
- Newton's moment corresponds historically to the differential. newtonproject.ox.ac.uk
- The conception relates a quantity's change to a vanishing interval of time. newtonproject.ox.ac.uk
- Moments may be increments or decrements and therefore positive or negative. en.wikisource.org
- 10A petit mal or absence seizure that briefly interrupts awareness.
The boy has epilepsy, and in class he sometimes has a moment where he stops responding for a few seconds.
Doctors confirmed that her brief moments were absence seizures.
- 11A particular point or small spot in space.
- 12A historical unit of time equal to one-tenth of a point, or roughly a fortieth of an hour.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes from Latin "mōmentum," passing through Old French "moment" and Middle English "moment." It is a doublet of "momentum" and "movement."
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Moment derives from Latin mōmentum through Old French moment and Middle English moment. en.wiktionary.org
- Moment is a doublet of momentum and movement. en.wiktionary.org