How do you use the word "moiety" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "moiety": The tribe was divided into two moiety groups. The moiety system was an ancient tradition.

Moiety Meaning

/ˈmɔɪ.ə.ti/

Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA half.

nounA share or portion, especially a smaller share.

Sentence Examples

The tribe was divided into two moiety groups.

The moiety system was an ancient tradition.

The chemical structure contains an active ester moiety.

CEFR Practice Quiz

The chemical compound has a special reactive ____ that forms bonds easily.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

In some ancient cultures, the entire local community was divided into a ____ system where each group had specific social responsibilities.

Word Origin & History

Borrowed from Middle French moytié, from Old French meitié (“half”) (modern French moitié (“half”)), from Late Latin medietās (“centre, midpoint; half”), from Latin medius (“half; middle”) + -tās (from Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts (suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being)). Medius is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”), possibly from *me-dʰi- (“among; with”), from *me (“in the middle of; among; with”). The word is a doublet of mediety.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"They were faire Ladies, till they fondly ſtriu’d / With th’Heliconian maides for 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." — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31, pages 370–371:

"The death of Anthony / Is not a ſingle doome. In the name lay / A moity of the world." — c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 364, column 1:

"[E]very merchant and paſſenger, that brings merchandizes into this land of Ireland out of England to the ſumme of one hundred pounds, that he ſhall buy and bring with him into the ſaid land in bowes to the value of one hundred ſhillings, […] and if any merchant or paſſenger bring any merchandize into the ſaid land, and bring with him no bowes as is afore rehearſed, that the ſaid merchant ſhall loſe and pay the value of the ſaid bowes, the one moietie thereof to the King, and the other moiety to the ſearchers of the ſame for the time being; […]" — 1634, “Chap[ter] XXII. An Act to Repeal a Statute, Made in the Twelfth Yeare of King Edward the Fourth, Concerning Bringing Bowes into This Realme.”, in Statutes Passed in the Parliaments Held in Ireland, volumes I (Containing from the Third Year of Edward the Second, A.D. 1310, to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Years of Charles the Second, A.D. 1662, inclusive), Dublin: Printed by George Grierson, […], published 1794, →OCLC, page 274:

"From New Holland the emeu, / With his better moiety, / Has paid a visit to the Zo- / ological Society." — 1829, “The Progress of Zoology”, in T[homas] Crofton Croker, editor, The Christmas Box. An Annual Present to Young Persons, London: John Ebers and Co. 27 Old Bond Street; Philadelphia, Pa.: Thomas Wardle, →OCLC, page 176:

"Suffer she must; but there are degrees of pain, and the whole catalogue of miseries which man, either from design or carelessness, inflicts on his weaker moiety, is trifling when compared to jealousy, as man himself occasionally knows from bitter experience." — 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXVIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 66:

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