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moon shot

moon shot

7.9
A very ambitious project that is unlikely to succeed
  • noun
  • /muːn ʃɑt/
translation icon : proyecto ambicioso
  • The team embarked on a bold moon shot to develop renewable energy technology that would change the world.

So I call it our generation's moon shot, and I strongly recommend them.

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Examples

  • Launching the new community initiative was a moon shot, aiming to solve long-standing social issues in the area.

  • Speaker, just a month ago, the Prime Minister described his moon shot plan where there were gonna be millions of tests done and returned every day.

  • Now, at the time, this was literally a moon shot and a lot of people in the audience thought he was crazy.

  • So here's the story of when I tried to get Steve and Apple to back my Moon Shot.

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  • That's the big moon shot for food of saying, what can we do to make food healthier?

  • So it's my way of trying to help teachers teach more effectively and to empower their students so that they can have a moon shot in their classroom.

  • Her ambitious plan to revolutionize education was seen as a moon shot by many of her colleagues.

Synonyms

shot
vsmoon shot
  • Informal
2.1

An attempt to do something you may not succeed in

is an unusually grand and innovative project rather than a plain attempt
long shot
vsmoon shot
  • Informal
58 4.6

An unlikely attempt that is still worth trying

is a very large ambitious project rather than just a risky attempt
moonshot
vsmoon shot
1 7.4

A very ambitious and risky project that may fail

is the same idea but written as two separate words

How Ambitious

moon shot
7.9
initiative
458 3.5
undertaking
47 4.6
project
2.5

Surface Forms

moon shot singular
moon shots plural

Morphology

moon + shot

The phrase is a clear metaphorical extension of the literal 'a shot at the moon' — 'moon' evokes a distant/lofty target and 'shot' an attempt, so learners who know the constituents can often infer a sense of a bold or ambitious attempt. However, the figurative shift to meaning an 'extremely ambitious or innovative project' is not purely compositional and requires a metaphorical mapping that may not capture all nuances, so it is only partially predictable.

Etymology

Moon shot (sense 2): The noun moon shot comes from the real idea of going to the moon, a goal so big people imagined it as a brave, single shot into space. Because a real moon shot was very difficult and risky, the phrase now means 'an extremely ambitious or unlikely project'.