{
  "id": "strike-while-the-iron-is-hot.window",
  "term": "strike while the iron is hot",
  "sense": "window",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "arena": "action",
  "domain": "everyday",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A parameter is near a wall where opportunity ends, and the range within which action can succeed is closing as the thing drifts toward a state where nothing will work.",
  "folk_gloss": "Act quickly when conditions are right.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end",
      "parameter.condition",
      "drift.aimless",
      "state-of-the-art.frontier"
    ],
    "interaction": "emergence.novel_properties",
    "novel_properties": [
      "opportunity"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Apollo 13's reentry required precise timing within a 30-second window to avoid burning up or skipping off the atmosphere.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The 2008 U.S. Treasury auctioned $700 billion in toxic assets within days of the market's freefall peak.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "CRISPR edits in zygotes must occur within 4 hours post-fertilization before chromatin hardens.",
      "domain": "biology"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "strike while the iron is hot"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — windows opening and closing"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-strike-while-the-iron-is-hot.window"
}