moat
Americannoun
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moats
plural
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a deep, wide trench, usually filled with water, surrounding the rampart of a fortified place, such as a town or a castle.
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any trench, such as one used for confining animals in a zoo.
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a competitive advantage a business has in its field.
The company's moat was reduced when the patent on the devices they sold expired.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of moat
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English mote, from Old French: “clod, mound,” of obscure origin
Explanation
Not many houses these days have a moat — it's a trench dug outside a castle and is usually full of water. A moat means "Keep out!" You're most likely to hear about moats if you read a fairy tale or a history of medieval times. This water-filled ditch is one of the lines of defense for a castle. In the old days, it was pretty effective. If you filled the moat with a deadly fish — like a piranha — that was an even better defense. A moat is pretty much the opposite of a welcome mat.
Vocabulary lists containing moat
The One and Only Ivan
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The Roman and Byzantine Empires, Lessons 5–7
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Shouting at the Rain
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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.
See Examples For:
“The key is the barrier — or the moat — will protect you from bad management,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
“That moat protected them against a lot of bad stuff,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
Its towering, mostly unbroken face and narrow swimming pool suggested a rampart and a moat, but behind the concrete exterior, Caland eliminated every door save the guest bathroom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
It is hard to predict when that will happen, but spinoff or not, L3Harris has a precious moat in a product that is desperately needed, with a growth rate that likely exceeds peers’.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
On the bridge we were suspended above an area of perfect lawn, such as you sometimes see in an old moat.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Chintalapalli views Amazon and Microsoft as value plays because both companies boast durable economic moats and strong earnings power while trading at reasonable discounts compared with their historical norms and peer group.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Arya expects that Nvidia’s earnings report in August will show investors that the company still has “its moats in products, pricing and supply chain,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
VanEck CEO Jan Van Eck argues the memory-chip stocks don’t have competitive moats, and notes their profit explosion is driven by temporary pricing power over sales volumes.
From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026
Carpenter, despite its fortified moats, may yet face challenges.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
I ate breakfast cheerily, watching the dust moats stirring in the sunlight that streamed in the back window.
From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
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.
