Moment

How to spell moment

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce moment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does moment mean?

1. nounA very brief period of time; a particular point in time.

Moment in a sentence

• She paused for a moment before answering the question.

• The perfect moment to ask for a raise rarely arrives.

Where does moment come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin momentum, which meant a movement, an impulse, or the weight that tips a balance. That noun was built on the verb movere, meaning 'to move', the same root that gives us 'motion', 'mobile', and indeed 'momentum' itself. The original sense of a tiny shift on a set of scales narrowed over time to mean the smallest perceptible passage of time, the instant in which such a shift happens. English borrowed it through Old French during the 1300s, keeping the idea of a very brief span of time. The shortening of momentum to moment in everyday speech is why the modern word looks so much simpler than its weighty Latin parent.

How the word is built

• mo(v)- (from movere: to move)
• -ment (noun suffix indicating a result or instance)