Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A half.
  • noun A part, portion, or share.
  • noun Anthropology Either of two kinship groups based on unilateral descent that together make up a tribe or society.
  • noun Chemistry A well-defined part of a larger molecule.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A half part or share; one of two equal parts: as, a moiety of an estate, of goods, or of profits.
  • noun A portion; a share.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of two equal parts; a half
  • noun An indefinite part; a small part.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Half.
  • noun A share or portion.
  • noun chemistry A specific segment of a molecule.
  • noun anthropology Each descent group in a culture which is divided exactly into two descent groups.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one of two basic subdivisions of a tribe
  • noun one of two (approximately) equal parts

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English moite, from Old French meitiet, moitie, from Late Latin medietās, from Latin, middle, from medius, middle; see medhyo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Old French meitié (French moitié), from Latin medietas “half”, from medius “middle, half”

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word moiety.

Examples

  • In addition, by combining a flavine mononucleotide with a protein moiety of Warburg's yellow enzyme, Kuhn and Rudy produced the very first partial synthesis of a fully functional enzyme.

    Richard Kuhn and the Chemical Institute: Double Bonds and Biological Mechanisms 2010

  • The role of this conjugate was not clear at the time, though its level was found to be dynamic and change during differentiation, when the histone moiety is subjected to ubiquitination and de-ubiquitination.

    Aaron Ciechanover - Autobiography 2005

  • -- in other words, a moiety of the whiskey he had drunk.

    The Jest Book The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings Mark Lemon 1839

  • Law French terms such as moiety, femme and baron hark back to a time when all lawyers were required to learn and practice in French because the ruling class had once spoken French.

    Diogenes' Thumbprint: Libraries and History 2006

  • The falcon motif of the ruling moiety was tattooed on his face.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • Nor do you introduce yourself with your lineage, clan, or moiety.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • Nor do you introduce yourself with your lineage, clan, or moiety.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • That she left off her moiety and people amused me.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • That she left off her moiety and people amused me.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • The family belongs to a clan, and the clan to a moiety.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Cleanchested. He has washed the upper moiety.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 3

    December 30, 2006

  • 1. A half. 2. A part, portion, or share. 3. Anthropology Either of two kinship groups based on unilateral descent that together make up a tribe or society.

    ETYMOLOGY: Middle English moite, from Old French meitiet, moitie, from Late Latin mediets, from Latin, middle, from medius, middle. See medhyo- in Appendix I.

    May 25, 2007

  • Also an astrological term: "Moitié is a 15th century French word derived from the Latin medietas, meaning middle. The moiety is the central region of the planetary orb, upon entry of which two planets are said to be in 'application' of aspect, or as we say in modern astrology 'within orb'. "

    May 25, 2007

  • This sounds like it should mean "moistness".

    April 14, 2008

  • "Other khepri glanced at Lin. Her skirt was long and bright in the fashion of Salcus Fields: human fashion, not the traditional ballooning pantaloons of these ghetto-dwellers. Lin was marked. She was an outsider. Had left her sisters. Forgotten hive and moiety." From Perdido Street Station by China Meiville.

    September 18, 2011