Moratorium

Definition: Moratorium

Moratorium

Noun

1. A legally authorized postponement before some obligation must be discharged.

2. Suspension of an ongoing activity.

Date "moratorium" was first used: 1875. (references)

Etymology: Moratorium \Mor`a*to"ri*um\, noun. [New Latin expression. See Moratory.]. (Websters 1913)

Specialty Definition: Moratorium

Domain	Definition
Environment	During the negotiation process, a period of 60 to 90 days during which EPA and potentially responsible parties may reach settlement but no site response activities can be conducted. (references)
Finance	Legal authorization to delay the collection of a debt, or the temporary suspension of some other activity. (references)
Literature	Moratorium A legal permission to defer for a stated time the payment of a bond, debt, cheque, or other obligation. This is done to enable the creditor to pull himself round by borrowing money, selling effects, or otherwise raising funds to satisfy obligations. The device was adopted in 1891 in the Argentine Republics during the money panic caused by the Baring Brothers' "difficulty," a default of some twenty millions sterling. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Synonyms within Context: Moratorium

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Lateness	Delay, delation; cunctation, procrastination; deferring, deferral; Verb: postponement, adjournment, prorogation, retardation, respite, pause, reprieve, stay of execution; protraction, prolongation; Fabian policy, medecine expectante, chancery suit, federal case; leeway; high time; moratorium, holdover.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Moratorium

Specialty definitions using "moratorium": Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Moratorium" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Albanian (moratorium), Czech (moratorium), Dutch (moratorium), French (moratorium), German (moratorium), Swedish (moratorium).

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Modern Usage: Moratorium

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Isn't there a moratorium on how long ladies are supposed to talk? (Gilmore Girls; writing credit: Povl Erik Carstensen; Sebastian Dorset)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Moratorium

Domain	Title
Books	Countdown to a nuclear moratorium (reference) Lifting of moratorium on ESA listings : hearing before the Committee on Resources, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, second session, on lifting of the moratorium on listing of threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Spec (reference) Moratorium : justice, energy, the north, and the native people (reference) Moratorium on the listing provisions of the Endangered Species Act : hearing before the Subcommittee on Drinking Water, Fisheries, and Wildlife of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate, One Hundred Fourth Congress, first sess (reference) Nuclear Testing Moratorium Act, S. 2064, and other nuclear testing issues : hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, second session, July 23, 1992 (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Moratorium

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Germany never needed a moratorium more than I do. Credit: Library of Congress.		Viet Nam moratorium / John Scheider ; [sponsored by] Ad Hoc Federal Employees Moratorium Committee. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Remember Kent & Jackson : on to May 5 : moratorium on business as usual. Credit: Library of Congress.		Valentine Dwornik, born 1949, died Vietnam, 1969 : moratorium, October, November till the end of the war / p. Credit: Library of Congress; photo by Winston Vargas..
	May 5 National moratorium. National college and high school moratorium in commemoration of Kent State, Jackson State and Augusta ... / Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Southeast Asia. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Moratorium

Subject	Topic	Quote
Business		At the same time it issued a moratorium, which states that no further permits for releases or trading will be granted until at least 2003, which is the earliest date for which a new law can be expected. (references)
Economic History	Lithuania	The underlying weakness of the banking system became apparent in late December 1995 when several smaller banks collapsed, and the Government imposed a moratorium on the two largest commercial banks (Litimpex and Akcinis Inovacinis Bankas). (references)
	Thailand	Among these are establishment of a Thai Asset Management Corporation, an affordable national health care scheme, a three-year debt moratorium for some farmers, and a micro-credit program designed to create jobs and promote development of new products in rural areas. (references)
	France	It supported the indefinite extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995. After conducting a final series of six nuclear tests, the French signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. France has implemented a moratorium on the production, export, and use of anti-personnel landmines and supports negotiations leading toward a universal ban. (references)
Human Rights	Kyrgyz Republic	The sentence was not carried out due to a government moratorium on the death penalty. (references)
	Philippines	In April senior government officials announced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty; however, in October the President said it was her duty to uphold the law in cases affirmed by the Supreme Court. (references)
Political Economy	SPAIN	Unless the EU takes steps to lift its moratorium on approval of transgenic products and streamlines its biotech product approval process, U.S. exporters will continue to be unable to ship U.S. corn to Spain. (references)
Worker Rights	Kuwait	However, in August the Government imposed a 3-month moratorium that temporarily waived restrictions on laborers and domestic workers, allowing them to transfer their residency sponsorships to new employers without penalty. (references)
	Indonesia	On July 9, the Government imposed a moratorium on labor export to work in Saudi Arabia, in an effort to obtain Saudi Arabia's consent to sign a labor agreement that would provide legal protection to Indonesian workers and the Saudi government subsequently signed such an agreement; however, the moratorium was subsequently lifted 7 weeks later. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Moratorium

"Moratorium" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Moratorium" is used about 204 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	204	21,327

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Moratorium

Expression using "moratorium": moratorium interest. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "moratorium": semi-moratorium.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Moratorium

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
moratorium	27
chicano moratorium	13
death moratorium penalty	6
moratorium nam viet	4
definition moratorium	3
moratorium prison project	3
internet tax moratorium	3
disney moratorium	3
adoption moratorium romanian	2
alpha alpha kappa moratorium	2
monica moratorium promenade santa	2
day moratorium nam viet	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Moratorium

Language		Translations for "moratorium"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		moratorium, shtyrja e afatit. (various references)

Arabic		‏تعليق أو توقيف النشاط, ‏الموراتوريوم قرار رسمي بتأجيل دفع الديون. (various references)

Bulgarian		мораториум. (various references)

Chinese		延期偿付. (various references)

Czech		moratorium. (various references)

Danish		moratorium. (various references)

Dutch		moratorium, surséance. (various references)

Esperanto		moratorio, pagprokrasto. (various references)

Farsi		مهلت قانونی(حق.), استمهال . (various references)

French		moratorium, moratoire (moratory). (various references)

German		moratorium. (various references)

Greek		χρεωστάσιο, δικαιοστάσιο. (various references)

Hungarian		fizetési haladék (days of grace, indulgence, moratoria). (various references)

Italian		moratoria. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		モノカルボン酸 (dag coating containing molybdenum, mobile, mohair, Mohawk, Mohawk haircut, molybdenum, moment, momism, monaural, monaural record, monocarboxylic acid, monochrome, monoclonal, mono-fluorine, monogram, monograph, monographie, monolock, monologue, monomania, monomaniac, monomer, monopolize, monopoly, monorail, monosexual, monotone, monotype, moped, moral hazard, moral majority, moral pollution, moral risk, moral sense, moral support, morale, morale survey, moralist, morality, Morris dance, person fond of using a mobile phone, unisex). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		モラトリア� . (various references)

Manx		bac (balk, disability, disqualification, drawback, handicap, objection, obstacle, pull back, snag, stay, trap). (various references)

Pig Latin		oratoriummay

Portuguese		moratória. (various references)

Russian		мораторий. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		moratorijum, odlaganje plaćanja dugova. (various references)

Spanish		moratoria. (various references)

Swedish		moratorium, uppskov (abeyance, adjournment, deferment, delay, indulgence, postponement, put off, reprieve, respite, suspence, suspense, suspension). (various references)

Thai		ช่วงหยุ�"การกระทำไว้ชั่วคราว, การอนุญาตให้เลื่อนการชำระหนี้. (various references)

Turkish		moratoryum, borçların ertelenmesi. (various references)

Ukrainian		строк мораторію, мораторій. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Moratorium

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	morari. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Moratorium

Derivations
	Words beginning with "moratorium": moratoriums. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Moratorium" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: maratorium, martyrium, megaterium, migratorius, Monachorum, moratoriam, moratorisum, moratoriun, moratorius, moratorrium, Moriconium, moritorium, morituri, mortarium, Mortuorum, movatorium, muratorian, oratorium. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Moratorium"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "moratorium" (pronounced mô'rutô"rēum)
7	-u t ô" r ē u m	auditorium, crematorium.
5	-ô" r ē u m	emporium.
4	-r ē u m	aquarium, atrium, bacterium, barium, delirium, deuterium, disequilibrium, equilibrium, Herbarium, honorarium, opprobrium, planetarium, tellurium, thorium, yttrium.
3	-ē u m	alluvium, ammonium, axiom, beryllium, cadmium, calcium, cesium, chromium, colloquium, compendium, condominium, consortium, europium, fermium, gallium, geranium, gonium, gymnasium, hafnium, harmonium, helium, holmium, idiom, indium, iridium, lawrencium, linoleum, lithium, magnesium, medium, millennium, minium, myocardium, nephridium, neptunium, niobium, nobelium, opium, osmium, palladium, pandemonium, paramecium, petroleum, Plasmodium, plutonium, podium, polonium, potassium, premium, presidium, promethium, protium, psyllium, radium, requiem, rhodium, selenium, sodium, stadium, strontium, superpremium, symposium, tedium, thallium, titanium, tritium, uranium, vanadium, zirconium.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Moratorium

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-i-m-m-o-o-r-r-t-u"
	-3 letters: outroar.
	-4 letters: armour, atrium, marmot, mortar, orator, ourari.
	-5 letters: amort, amour, armor, imaum, miaou, moira, morro, motor, murra, ratio, rotor, rumor, tumor, urari.
	Words containing the letters "a-i-m-m-o-o-r-r-t-u"
	+1 letter: moratoriums.
	+4 letters: ultramicrotome, ultramicrotomy.
	+5 letters: ultramicrotomes.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.