Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A half.
- noun A part, portion, or share.
- noun Anthropology Either of two kinship groups based on unilateral descent that together make up a tribe or society.
- noun Chemistry A well-defined part of a larger molecule.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A half part or share; one of two equal parts: as, a moiety of an estate, of goods, or of profits.
- noun A portion; a share.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One of two equal parts; a half
- noun An indefinite part; a small part.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Half . - noun A
share orportion . - noun chemistry A specific
segment of amolecule . - noun anthropology Each descent group in a
culture which isdivided exactly into two descent groups.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun one of two basic subdivisions of a tribe
- noun one of two (approximately) equal parts
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In addition, by combining a flavine mononucleotide with a protein moiety of Warburg's yellow enzyme, Kuhn and Rudy produced the very first partial synthesis of a fully functional enzyme.
Richard Kuhn and the Chemical Institute: Double Bonds and Biological Mechanisms 2010
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The role of this conjugate was not clear at the time, though its level was found to be dynamic and change during differentiation, when the histone moiety is subjected to ubiquitination and de-ubiquitination.
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-- in other words, a moiety of the whiskey he had drunk.
The Jest Book The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings Mark Lemon 1839
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Law French terms such as moiety, femme and baron hark back to a time when all lawyers were required to learn and practice in French because the ruling class had once spoken French.
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The falcon motif of the ruling moiety was tattooed on his face.
Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011
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Nor do you introduce yourself with your lineage, clan, or moiety.
Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011
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Nor do you introduce yourself with your lineage, clan, or moiety.
Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011
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That she left off her moiety and people amused me.
Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011
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That she left off her moiety and people amused me.
Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011
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The family belongs to a clan, and the clan to a moiety.
Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011
brtom commented on the word moiety
Cleanchested. He has washed the upper moiety.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
arby commented on the word moiety
1. A half. 2. A part, portion, or share. 3. Anthropology Either of two kinship groups based on unilateral descent that together make up a tribe or society.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English moite, from Old French meitiet, moitie, from Late Latin mediets, from Latin, middle, from medius, middle. See medhyo- in Appendix I.
May 25, 2007
arby commented on the word moiety
Also an astrological term: "Moitié is a 15th century French word derived from the Latin medietas, meaning middle. The moiety is the central region of the planetary orb, upon entry of which two planets are said to be in 'application' of aspect, or as we say in modern astrology 'within orb'. "
May 25, 2007
pterodactyl commented on the word moiety
This sounds like it should mean "moistness".
April 14, 2008
5814738 commented on the word moiety
"Other khepri glanced at Lin. Her skirt was long and bright in the fashion of Salcus Fields: human fashion, not the traditional ballooning pantaloons of these ghetto-dwellers. Lin was marked. She was an outsider. Had left her sisters. Forgotten hive and moiety." From Perdido Street Station by China Meiville.
September 18, 2011