moiety
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈmɔɪ.ə.ti/
  • (GA) IPA: /ˈmɔɪ.ə.ti/, /-ɾi/
Noun

moiety (plural moieties)

  1. A half.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book II, canto XII, stanza 31, pages 370–371 ↗:
      They were faire Ladies, till they fondly ſtriu’d / With th’Heliconian maides for mastery#English|mayſtery; / Of whom they ouer-comen, were depriu’d / Of their proud beautie, and th’one moyity / Transform’d to fiſh, for their bold ſurquedry, / But th’vpper halfe their hew retayned ſtill, / And their ſweet skill in wonted melody; / Which euer after they abuſd to ill, / T’allure weake traueillers, whom gotten they did kill.
    • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene i], page 364 ↗, column 1:
      The death of Anthony / Is not a ſingle doome. In the name lay / A moity of the world.
  2. A share or portion, especially a smaller share.
  3. (anthropology) Each descent group#Noun|group in a culture#Noun|culture which is divide#Verb|divided exactly into two descent groups.
  4. (chemistry) A specific segment#Noun|segment of a molecule.
    Aniline has both a phenyl and an amino moiety.
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