spur-of-the-moment

1. 1.

   in response to an unforeseen need

   “a spur-of-the-moment party”

   Similarunprepared

Questions about spur-of-the-moment

What does spur-of-the-moment mean?

spur-of-the-moment means "in response to an unforeseen need".

How many syllables are in spur-of-the-moment?

spur-of-the-moment has 5 syllables and divides as spu-r-of--the--mo-ment under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

Is spur-of-the-moment a common word?

spur-of-the-moment is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.