different between decisive vs momentous

English

Etymology

From Middle French décisif

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??sa?s?v/
• Rhymes: -a?s?v

Adjective

decisive (comparative more decisive, superlative most decisive)

1. Having the power or quality of deciding a question or controversy; putting an end to contest or controversy; final; conclusive.

   A decisive battle is fatal for one side's war chances

   A decisive vote
2. Marked by promptness and decision.

   A noble instance of this attribute of the decisive character. -J. Foster.

Synonyms

• decided
• positive
• conclusive

Antonyms

• indecisive

Derived terms

• decisively
• decisiveness

Related terms

• decidable
• decided

Translations

References

• decisive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• decisive in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• iDevices

Italian

Adjective

decisive

1. feminine plural of decisivo

English

Etymology

From moment +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /m???m?n.t?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mo??m?n.t?s/
• Rhymes: -?nt?s

Adjective

momentous (comparative more momentous, superlative most momentous)

1. Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.
   • 1725, Daniel Defoe, Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business:

     The reason why I did not publish this book till the end of the last sessions of parliament was, because I did not care to interfere with more momentous affairs.

   • 1831, James Fenimore Cooper, Homeward Bound, ch. 31:

     "It has been a momentous month, and I hope we shall all retain healthful recollections of it as long as we live."

   • 1902, Joseph Conrad, The End of the Tether, ch. 3:

     What to the other parties was merely the sale of a ship was to him a momentous event involving a radically new view of existence.

   • 2007 July 1, Richard Dawkins, "Inferior Design," New York Times (retrieved 19 Nov 2013):

     Natural selection is arguably the most momentous idea ever to occur to a human mind, because it — alone as far as we know — explains the elegant illusion of design that pervades the living kingdoms and explains, in passing, us.

Derived terms

• momentously
• momentousness

Translations

Anagrams

• mesonotum