Word.ws English Dictionary

move the needle

/ˌmuːv ðə ˈniː.dəl/

move the needle verb: to change a situation to a noticeable degree; to make an appreciable difference.

Verb

move the needle (third-person singular simple present moves the needle, present participle moving the needle, simple past and past participle moved the needle)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To change a situation to a noticeable degree; to make an appreciable difference.
    • Think Red Hots are a taste challenge? Or the Atomic Fireball is the ultimate tongue torture? They barely move the needle for confectionery connoisseurs.2002 July 28, Janice M. Horowitz, “Hot Stuff”, in Time
    • How does a participant in a sector, or an entire sector for that matter, move the needle on climate change?2012 August 9, Eric Lowitt, “To solve climate change, let's move beyond climate change”, in The Guardian

Examples of move the needle in a sentence

  • “[G]iven Apple’s huge success and its sheer magnitude, it needs a monstrous new product or enhancement of an existing product to move the needle on growth.”2016 May 19, James B. Stewart, quoting Bill Smead, “Warren Buffett Stake Suggests Apple Is All Grown Up”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
  • A North Star Metric (NSM) allows everyone, irrespective of team status, to ask, “How is what I'm doing today helping move the needle on our NSM?”2020, Anuj Adhiya, Growth Hacking For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:
  • “Any one particular training source, it doesn’t move the needle for us that much,” he said.2024 May 4, Alex Hern, Dan Milmo, quoting Sam Altman, “Danger and opportunity for news industry as AI woos it for vital human-written...

Synonyms of move the needle

Forms of move the needle

third-person singular presentmoves the needle
present participlemoving the needle
past participlemoved the needle
pastmoved the needle

Origin of move the needle

From the indicator needle of a measuring instrument such as a speedometer, dial indicator, etc; used both literally and figuratively.

Words formed from move the needle

Questions about move the needle

What does move the needle mean?
Move the needle means to change a situation to a noticeable degree; to make an appreciable difference.
How do you use move the needle in a sentence?
“[G]iven Apple’s huge success and its sheer magnitude, it needs a monstrous new product or enhancement of an existing product to move the needle on growth.”
What part of speech is move the needle?
Move the needle is a verb.
How do you pronounce move the needle?
Move the needle is pronounced /ˌmuːv ðə ˈniː.dəl/.
What is the past tense of move the needle?
The past tense of move the needle is moved the needle.

Words near move the needle in the dictionary

  1. move the chains
  2. move the deckchairs on the Titanic
  3. move the dial
  4. move the goal posts
  5. move the goalposts
  6. move the needle
  7. move the problem
  8. move the yardsticks
  9. move through the gears
  10. move to
  11. move together

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: move the needle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-move the needle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “move the needle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/move_the_needle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.