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move·ment (mvmənt)
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n.
1.
a. The act or an instance of moving; a change in place or position.
b. A particular manner of moving.
2. A change in the location of troops, ships, or aircraft for tactical or strategic purposes.
3.
a. A series of actions and events taking place over a period of time and working to foster a principle or policy: a movement toward world peace.
b. An organized effort by supporters of a common goal: a leader of the labor movement.
4. A tendency or trend: a movement toward larger kitchens.
5. A change in the market price of a security or commodity.
6.
a. An evacuation of the bowels.
b. The matter so evacuated.
7. The suggestion or illusion of motion in a painting, sculpture, or design.
8. The progression of events in the development of a literary plot.
9. The rhythmical or metrical structure of a poetic composition.
10. Music A self-contained section of an extended composition.
11. Linguistics In generative grammar, a transformation in which a constituent in one part of a syntactic structure is copied or displaced into a different location, creating a new structure.
12. A mechanism, such as the works of a watch, that produces or transmits motion.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.