kairos means A time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action; the opportune and decisive moment. It carries an Arena rating of 1908, earned across 30 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, kairos ranks #62 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #870 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #930 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #937 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
kairos is pronounced /ˈkaɪɹɒs/.
Why “kairos” is a great word
KAIROS — [Noun] A propitious moment for decision or action, characterized by its qualitative and opportune nature rather than mere chronological sequence. From Ancient Greek καιρός (kairós, "the right or critical moment, opportunity"). Unlike chronos—the indifferent, quantifiable tick of the clock—or a mere opportunity—a general favorable circumstance—kairos denotes a fleeting aperture of supreme fitness, where destiny feels malleable and action is imperative. It is the archer sensing the perfect stillness between heartbeats to loose the arrow, the exact instant a ripe fruit detaches from the stem, or the single, suspended beat in a conversation when the right word must be spoken or forever lost—time not as a river, but as a keyhole.
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek καιρός (kairós).
noun
- A time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action; the opportune and decisive moment.e.g.“The—so-called! friends—rational world. If only they, Mom&Dad&Buddy&Sis, dear-but-square ones, could but know the kairos, the supreme moment…” — 1968, Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, page 129:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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