moot
Americanadjective
-
open to discussion or debate; debatable; doubtful.
Whether that was the cause of their troubles is a moot point.
- Synonyms:
- unsettled, disputed, disputable
- Antonyms:
- indisputable
-
of little or no practical value, meaning, or relevance; purely academic.
In practical terms, the issue of her application is moot because the deadline has passed.
-
Chiefly Law. not actual; theoretical; hypothetical.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
an assembly of the people in early England exercising political, administrative, and judicial powers.
-
an argument or discussion, especially of a hypothetical legal case.
-
Obsolete. a debate, argument, or discussion.
adjective
verb
-
(tr) to suggest or bring up for debate
-
(intr) to plead or argue theoretical or hypothetical cases, as an academic exercise or as vocational training for law students
noun
-
a discussion or debate of a hypothetical case or point, held as an academic activity
-
(in Anglo-Saxon England) an assembly, mainly in a shire or hundred, dealing with local legal and administrative affairs
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
has mootedperfect 3rd person singular
-
have mootedperfect
-
have been mootingperfect progressive
-
are mootingprogressive
-
is mootingprogressive 3rd person singular
-
mootssingular 3rd person
-
has been mootingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
-
mootingparticiple
-
am mootingprogressive 1st person singular
Past
-
had mootedperfect
-
was mootingprogressive singular
-
mootedparticiple
-
mootedsimple
-
had been mootingperfect progressive
-
were mootingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of moot
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun mot(e) “meeting, assembly,” Old English gemōt; cognate with Old Norse mōt, Dutch gemoet “meeting”; see meet 1
Explanation
When a point is moot, it's too trivial to think about. If your basketball team loses by 40 points, the bad call by the official in the first quarter is moot: it isn't important. Though moot can mean to debate endlessly without any clear decision or to think about something carefully, it most often describes ideas and arguments that don't really matter. If your plane is crashing, whether or not your socks match is a moot point. When someone accuses you of making a moot point, he's basically saying, "Come on! Let's talk about what's important." As with so many things, people don't always agree on what's moot and what's not.
Vocabulary lists containing moot
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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This Week in Pop Culture: March 2 - 8, 2019
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The first walk will cover the Cat Bells path while the second will set off from Moot Hall, in the centre of Keswick, before heading for Latrigg.
From BBC • Dec. 25, 2023
Zimbabwe now has also been crowned champions of Europe after beating The Netherlands in the finals of the European Moot Competition for high school students on July 3.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 17, 2022
“These are not only extraordinary songs, but milestones that have changed the course of modern music forever,” Guy Moot, co-chair and chief executive of Warner Chappell, said in a news release.
From Washington Post • Jan. 3, 2022
“Being in a club and watching the euphoria and connection still counts for a lot in A&R,” says Guy Moot, head of publisher Warner Chappell.
From The Guardian • Jul. 16, 2020
The hobbits could see that Bregalad was now listening intently, although to them, down in the dell of his ent-house, the sound of the Moot was faint.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
