milestone

Language: en

🇺🇸 /ˈmaɪˌlstoʊn/

📖 Definitions

  1. noun
    A stone set up beside a road to mark the distance in miles from a particular point.; A significant event or stage in the life, progress, development, or history of a person, nation, or project.; A key point or checkpoint in a project plan used to track progress.

🔗 Details

Word forms

countable Plural: milestones 3rd sing.: milestones Past: milestoned Past part.: milestoned Pres part.: milestoning

Collocations

reach a milestoneachieve a milestonemajor milestonesignificant milestonehit a milestonemark a milestone

Derivatives

milestoning

Synonyms

landmarkbenchmarkturning pointwatershedmilepost

Commonly confused

landmark
EN: 'Landmark' emphasizes a notable event or physical feature that stands out; 'milestone' emphasizes measurable progress along a timeline or journey.
benchmark
EN: 'Benchmark' is a standard or reference point for comparison; 'milestone' is a significant stage or achievement in a process.

Spelling tips

EN: Remember 'milestone' is one word, not two ('mile stone'). It is sometimes incorrectly hyphenated as 'mile-stone'.

💬 Examples

  1. The old milestone by the highway indicated that the town was five miles away.

  2. Graduating from college was a major milestone in her life.

  3. The team celebrated reaching the first milestone of the software development project.