English Explanatory Dictionary

Sputnik moment

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The moment when a country or a society realizes that it needs to catch up with apparent technological and scientific developments made by some other country or countries by increasing its investment into education, innovative research and development, etc.

Pronunciation

/ˈspʊtnɪk ˈməʊmənt/ /ˈspʌtnɪk ˈməʊmənt/ /ˈspʊtnɪk ˈmoʊmənt/ /ˈspʌtnɪk ˈmoʊmənt/ en-au-Sputnik moment.ogg

Word forms

Sputnik moment Sputnik moments

Etymology

A reference to the Soviet Union's launch of the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957 which caught the US unprepared. The event ignited the Space Race during the Cold War, and led to the US successfully launching Explorer 1 into space in 1958.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary