milestone
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An important event or stage in progress.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mylstohnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmaɪlstoʊn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A significant event in your life (or in a project)
idiomatic
An important event in a person's life or career, in the history of a nation, in the life of some project, etc.
A stone milepost (or by extension in other materials), one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road at regular intervals, typically at the side of the road or in a median.
Stone post at side of a road to show distances
verb
idiomatic
To plan out a project as a series of major steps.
To place milestones along (a road, etc.).
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A significant event in your life (or in a project)
Used this way, milestone is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use milestone
- “Graduating from college was a huge milestone in my life.”noun
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to plan out a project as a series of major steps
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.