as in moments
a very small space of time
it all happened in an instant
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Recent Examples of instants
Recent instants, according to the company, will be saved in an archive that's private and only accessible to the user who takes it.
—
Kelly McCarthy, ABC News, 13 May 2026
Elle has become a collector of sounds, wandering the city with a pocket recorder in hand, creating what are, in effect, sonic images of instants stretched out into time.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2026
Kelly McCarthy, ABC News, 13 May 2026
Elle has become a collector of sounds, wandering the city with a pocket recorder in hand, creating what are, in effect, sonic images of instants stretched out into time.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for instants
Noun
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The honk of strident organ music would punctuate moments of tension.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 May 2026
-
Pictured below moments after his red carpet appearance with Baptista, Cassel offers the gentlemanly arm to accompany the reigning queen of French cinema and his fellow cast member in Histoires Parallèles, Catherine Deneueve, to her seat.—
Guy Martin,
Forbes.com,
18 May 2026
Noun
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Officers arrived at the scene four minutes later and found three adult men dead in front of the mosque, Wahl said.—
Tim Stelloh,
NBC news,
19 May 2026
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The women’s games showed the ticker on average three of every four minutes.—
Luke Connors,
Washington Post,
19 May 2026
Noun
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In the last seconds, West Ham’s Declan Rice, an elite English midfielder who would go on to sign a record-breaking contract a year later with Arsenal for £105 million, tied the match with a thumping shot that exploded into the Kidderminster goal.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 May 2026
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Rousey stopped Gina Carano with her signature armbar just 17 seconds into the two iconic fighters' double comeback bout Saturday night.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
17 May 2026
Noun
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To live with, and in, All of a Sudden is to match heartbeats with these two women for a few hours.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
15 May 2026
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Much like their youthful, emotional heartbeats, malls in the ’80s and ’90s bustled, becoming as quintessential to American culture as hot dogs and apple pie.—
Audrey Pachuta,
Chicago Tribune,
9 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Instants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/instants. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
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