aha moment

noun

variants or less commonly Aha moment
: a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension
The aha moment you experience when you've been trying to remember the name of a song and three hours later it hits you …Jeffrey Kluger

Note: Aha is sometimes followed by an exclamation point and is also often placed in quotation marks.

That was the "Aha!" moment … that made the befuddlement worthwhile.Robin Marantz Henig
Her "aha" moment came about two years ago …Emily Weinstein

Examples of aha moment in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web What the group described as its aha moment was during last year’s New York Fashion Week and a show by designer Jason Wu. Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press, 13 Feb. 2024 That was probably the aha moment from a brand point of view. Jane Thier, Fortune, 14 Jan. 2024 The aha moment linking the infants came in August 2022, when Wadman was called upon to consult in the case of a baby who'd been born with birth defects. Erika Edwards, NBC News, 5 Dec. 2023 But the aha moment came during the summer of 2015 when the tabloids went to town condemning the topless women in body paint hustling for tips in Times Square. Karrie Jacobs, Curbed, 12 Oct. 2023 What’s an aha moment that’s common for people new to robotics? IEEE Spectrum, 2 Oct. 2023 But the data from his study led to an aha moment: For the first time, a buildable warp bubble showed promise of success. Eric Adams, Popular Mechanics, 15 Aug. 2023 Then, inspired by the convertible spaces on sailboats — Watt grew up sailing and her father later lived on a sailboat — came the aha moment. Marni Elyse Katz, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2023 During that long-distance phone call, the three moms had an aha moment and a business was born: Kids Love Greece. Laura Begley Bloom, Forbes, 17 July 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'aha moment.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1931, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of aha moment was in 1931

Dictionary Entries Near aha moment

Cite this Entry

“Aha moment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aha%20moment. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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