man in the moon

noun

1. a fancied semblance of a human face in the disk of the full moon, so perceived because of variations in the moon's topography.

man in the moon

noun

1. the moon when considered to resemble the face of a man
2. (in folklore and nursery rhyme) a character dwelling in the moon

Word History and Origins

Origin of man in the moon¹

Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325

Example Sentences

Chalamet plays the Man in the Moon, who turns from supportive to disturbed as the story goes on.

From Los Angeles Times

The brightness difference between these two materials forms the familiar "man in the moon" face or "rabbit picking rice" image to the naked eye.

From Salon

One man in the moon that people see is actually a woman with a ponytail, smiling and looking off into space.

From Literature

I can clearly see the Man in the Moon surrounded by all those craters created eons ago by a bombardment of meteoroids.

From Literature

In this view, the large craters that are characteristic of the moon’s early existence—such as those that formed the “Man in the Moon”—may have formed earlier than previously thought.

From Scientific American