Word.ws English Dictionary

spur of the moment

spur of the moment noun: an impulse; a short notice; a lack of planning.

Noun

spur of the moment (plural spurs of the moment)

  1. (idiomatic) An impulse; a short notice; a lack of planning.
    • We decided to vacation in Las Vegas on the spur of the moment.
    • Obey the spur of the moment. These accumulated it is that make the impulse and the impetus of the life of genius.1852 January 26, Henry David Thoreau

Forms of spur of the moment

pluralspurs of the moment
alternative attributivespur-of-the-moment

Words formed from spur of the moment

Questions about spur of the moment

What does spur of the moment mean?
Spur of the moment means an impulse; a short notice; a lack of planning.
What part of speech is spur of the moment?
Spur of the moment is a noun.
What is the plural of spur of the moment?
The plural of spur of the moment is spurs of the moment.

Words near spur of the moment in the dictionary

  1. spur gearing
  2. spur gearings
  3. spur gears
  4. spur leather
  5. spur leathers
  6. spur of the moment
  7. spur on
  8. spur-heeled
  9. spur-leather
  10. spur-leathers
  11. spur-of-the-moment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spur of the moment (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-spur of the moment.ogg.

Cite this entry: “spur of the moment.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spur_of_the_moment. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.