momentarily

English

Etymology

From momentary +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈməʊməntəɹəli/, /məʊmənˈtɛɹəli/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Adverb

momentarily (not comparable)

1. (manner) In a momentary manner; for a moment or instant.
   • 2010 December 23, Phillip Roth, “Prologue”, in The Great American Novel‎^[1], →ISBN, page 21:

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

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     The numbers thin out the further we get from London, so I don't feel guilty when I remove my mask momentarily to scoff some of the snacks I'd bought at Marylebone.

2. (US, proscribed, duration) In a moment or very soon; any minute now, any time now.

   This plane will be landing at Idlewild Airport momentarily.

   • 1880, Lew Wallace, chapter 3, in Ben-Hur, a Tale of the Christ:

     He told me, further, that the second coming was at hand--was looked for momentarily in Jerusalem.

3. Progressively; moment by moment.

Usage notes

Many speakers object to the use of momentarily in the sense of “in a moment” rather than “for a moment”, since this is inconsistent with the meaning of momentary; nonetheless, this use is quite common in North America, and is particularly associated with airlines, such as “we will be landing momentarily”. In place of momentarily, many speakers prefer the terms presently, soon or the phrase “in a moment”, for this sense of “in a moment”.

Synonyms

• (in a moment): presently, shortly, soon; see also Thesaurus:soon
• (for a moment): briefly, temporarily; see also Thesaurus:temporarily
• (moment by moment): incrementally, progressively, step by step; see also Thesaurus:gradually

Translations

In a momentary manner

• Bulgarian: моментно (bg) (momentno)
• Dutch: even (nl)
• Esperanto: momente
• Finnish: hetkeksi (fi), hetkellisesti
• French: brièvement (fr)
• German: momentan (de)
• Hungarian: egy pillanatra
• Malay: seketika
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: momentant

  Nynorsk: momentant

• Polish: chwilowo (pl)
• Romanian: momentan (ro)

In a moment or very soon

• Bulgarian: мигновено (bg) (mignoveno)
• Dutch: zo (nl)
• Esperanto: momente
• Finnish: koska hyvänsä, millä hetkellä hyvänsä
• German: jeden Moment, jeden Augenblick
• Hungarian: hamarosan (hu)
• Norwegian: straks (no), veldig snart, veldig snart, øyeblikkelig (no), straks (no), straks (no)
• Romanian: imediat (ro)
• Russian: вско́ре (ru) (vskóre)

progressively; moment by moment — see progressively,‎ step by step