moon

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (16)  · 
Think the moon is a blue moon, a single elephantine sapphire.

View all »
Definitions (69)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. noun The natural satellite of Earth, visible by reflection of sunlight and having a slightly elliptical orbit, approximately 356,000 kilometers (221,600 miles) distant at perigee and 406,997 kilometers (252,950 miles) at apogee. Its mean diameter is 3,475 kilometers (2,160 miles), its mass approximately one eightieth that of Earth, and its average period of revolution around Earth 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes calculated with respect to the sun.
  2. noun A natural satellite revolving around a planet.
  3. noun The moon as it appears at a particular time in its cycle of phases: a gibbous moon.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (45)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (9)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • If we could take the pound weight to the moon, the attractive force of the earth would be reduced to 1-3600, as the moon is 240,000 miles distant, that is sixty times the earth's radius. —  Aether and Gravitation
  • He joined them at their after-dinner coffee, but he said he had had his smoke, and when, presently, May expressed a laudable desire to go and see what the moon was about, he could do no less than offer to escort her Won't you come, Miss Beverly?" —  A Venetian June
  • For it would be the season of harvest--were such known in the Chaco--and the moon is at her full, lighting up the campo with a clearness unknown to northern lands Were it otherwise, Rufino Valdez might have halted here, and been forced to stay in the Chaco for another night. —  Gaspar the Gaucho A Story of the Gran Chaco
  • Though the moon was absent the air was so clear that on the background of the white sand a man could distinguish the general outline of objects, even when small or distant. —  The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt
  • And once more only the sounds of the night--that vague stir in the windless woods, as if the forest breathes, the far-away tinkle of water hidden in the darkness--and the moon is among the summits The men remained within, for Absalom avoided the chill night air, and crouched over the smouldering fire. —  His "Day In Court" 1895
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged moon

plenilune · selenotropism · neomenia · moonbeam · selenology · moonscape · moonless · moonrise · lunar cycle · crescent · gibbous

More »

Stats

This word has been looked up 207 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English moone, from Old English mōna; see mē-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English moone, mone, from Anglo-Saxon mōna = Old Saxon māno = OFries. mōna = Middle Dutch maene, Dutch maan = Middle Low German māne, mān, Low German maan = Old High German māno, Middle High German māne, mōn, also (with excrescent t, due prob. in part to association with mānet, month) mānte, mānde, German mond = Icelandic māni = Swedish måne = Danish maane = Gothic (Moesogothic) mēna (all muse.), the moon; = Greek μήνη, the moon, = Lithuanian menů, the moon; cf., with apparently formative s, Old Bulgarian miesetsĭ, etc., moon, month, Latin mensis, month, Greek μήν (for *μηνς), month (Μήν, the Moon-god, Latin Lunus, Μήνη, the Moon-goddess, Latin Luna), Sanskrit mās (for *māns, *mēns) = Zend mās, later Persian māh (later Hindustani Turk, māh), moon, month. The relations of these forms to each other, and to the words for ‘month’ (see month), and their ult. root, are undetermined. The usual explanation is that the moon is the ‘measurer’ (sc. of time), from √ from ma, Sanskrit , measure (whence ult. English mete and measure). The L. name of the moon (luna) and the L., Greek, and Teutonic names for the sun (Latin sōl = Anglo-Saxon sōl, etc.; Greek ήλιος; Anglo-Saxon sunne, English sun, etc.) come from other roots, meaning ‘shine.’
  2. (. moon, n.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/mun/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a day.

Recently looked up

Fray · pants · peradventure · fluorocarbon · tavern

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

eu oi oìa u ou e u oìa · the octopi are dry · Kansas City · spell it rite · put it in your pocket