muscle memory

noun

: the ability to repeat a specific muscular movement with improved efficiency and accuracy that is acquired through practice and repetition
Hitting the golf ball requires strength, flexibility, coordination and muscle memory.Al Barkow
They practice their routines with mind-numbing repetitiveness, for hours and days, weeks and years, so that each spinning, twisting landing off the high bar becomes an act of muscle memory.E. M. Swift

Examples of muscle memory in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Travelers leave with both a finished object and, crucially, the muscle memory of having actually done it — not just watched it being done. Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 29 May 2026 More than the page itself, the routine summons the part of his conscience that survives on muscle memory and suffocates uncertainty. Joel Lorenzi, New York Times, 23 May 2026 Repetition and muscle memory may be greater factors in MLB, while wear and tear may be more of a factor in basketball, a sport in which starters typically run two to three miles over the course of each game. Lev Akabas, Sportico.com, 18 May 2026 Yet for someone with no muscle memory for this sort of fame, Rai seemed entirely unfazed. Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 18 May 2026 See All Example Sentences for muscle memory

Word History

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of muscle memory was in 1890

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Cite this Entry

“Muscle memory.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/muscle%20memory. Accessed 5 Jun. 2026.

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