movement

[ moov-muhnt ]

noun

1. the act, process, or result of moving.

   Antonyms: stasis, inertia

2. a particular manner or style of moving.
3. Usually movements. actions or activities, as of a person or a body of persons.
4. Military, Naval. a change of position or location of troops or ships.
5. abundance of events or incidents.

   Synonyms: eventfulness

6. rapid progress of events.
7. the progress of events, as in a narrative or drama.
8. Fine Arts. the suggestion of motion in a work of art, either by represented gesture in figurative painting or sculpture or by the relationship of structural elements in a design or composition.
9. a progressive development of ideas toward a particular conclusion:

   the movement of his thought.

10. a series of actions or activities intended or tending toward a particular end:

    the movement toward universal suffrage.

11. the course, tendency, or trend of affairs in a particular field.
12. a diffusely organized or heterogeneous group of people or organizations tending toward or favoring a generalized common goal:

    the antislavery movement; the realistic movement in art.

13. the price change in the market of some commodity or security:

    an upward movement in the price of butter.

14. bowel movement.
15. the working parts or a distinct portion of the working parts of a mechanism, as of a watch.
16. Music.
    1. a principal division or section of a sonata, symphony, or the like.
    2. motion; rhythm; time; tempo.
17. Prosody. rhythmical structure or character.

movement

/ ˈmuːvmənt /

noun

1. 1. the act, process, or result of moving
   2. an instance of moving
2. the manner of moving
3. 1. a group of people with a common ideology, esp a political or religious one
   2. the organized action of such a group
4. a trend or tendency in a particular sphere
5. the driving and regulating mechanism of a watch or clock
6. often plural a person's location and activities during a specific time
7. 1. the evacuation of the bowels
   2. the matter evacuated
8. music a principal self-contained section of a symphony, sonata, etc, usually having its own structure
9. tempo or pace, as in music or literature
10. fine arts the appearance of motion in painting, sculpture, etc
11. prosody the rhythmic structure of verse
12. a positional change by one or a number of military units
13. a change in the market price of a security or commodity

movement

1. In music, a self-contained division of a long work; each movement usually has its own tempo . A long, undivided composition is said to be in one movement.

Other Words From

• counter·movement noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of movement¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French; move, -ment

Synonym Study

See motion.

Example Sentences

I reviewed more than 14,000 pages of letters and internal documents from the anti-immigration movement.

From Salon

Much of the American environmental movement shared this sense of urgency.

From Salon

That’s why, he thought, the immigration fight had to be taken up inside the conservation movement itself, by what is viewed as America’s most prominent environmental organization, an organization that would have the moral authority to bring difficult messages to the public.

From Salon

Inc. provided financial support for Peter Brimelow, a former Forbes journalist, to write “Alien Nation” — a book Tanton helped edit and that would go on to shape the white supremacy movement.

From Salon

Having lost the backing of the Sierra Club, America’s anti-immigration movement turned more explicitly to climate change — and to one of Zuckerman’s Sierra Club colleagues, Leon Kolankiewicz, an environmental planner versed in sprawl and impact studies and a longtime proponent of the idea that the planet had a limited carrying capacity.

From Salon

Related Words

• change
• crusade
• demonstration
• evolution
• faction
• flow
• group
• organization
• party
• shift
• tendency
• transfer
• trend
• unrest