Momentarily

adv

adv ·5 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a momentary manner; for a moment or instant. not-comparable

    "I imagined momentarily that it was four score and seven years ago, that I had just been brought forth from my mother[…]"

  2. 2
    In a moment or very soon; any minute now, any time now. US, not-comparable, proscribed

    "The system will restart momentarily."

  3. 3
    Progressively; moment by moment. not-comparable
Adverb
  1. 1
    at any moment wordnet
  2. 2
    for an instant or moment wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
brieflymomentlyawayawhilebrieflydirectly

Example

More examples

"I must have stolen it when I lost control of myself momentarily."

Etymology

From momentary + -ly.

Related phrases

any minute nowany time now

More for "momentarily"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.