moat

American  

[moht] / moʊt /

noun

• moats
  plural

1. a deep, wide trench, usually filled with water, surrounding the rampart of a fortified place, such as a town or a castle.

2. any trench, such as one used for confining animals in a zoo.

3. a competitive advantage a business has in its field.

   The company's moat was reduced when the patent on the devices they sold expired.

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moat British  

/ məʊt /

noun

1. a wide water-filled ditch surrounding a fortified place, such as a castle

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verb

1. (tr) to surround with or as if with a moat

   a moated grange

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• moats
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

moat moats

Lemonides called DoorDash’s main business “easier” than that of Instacart but also pointed to the latter’s competitive moat.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026

“Nvidia’s fundamentals are strong, and its recent earnings announcements and guidance gave investors confidence that it continues to have strong demand and a pretty significant moat in its chip business,” Wettemann said.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

This seemingly blew a hole in the moat around IBM’s legacy business and Krishna’s hybrid strategy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

Without a competitive moat, the darlings of today’s AI boom could be headed for a serious contraction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

All around her people laughed and clung to one another as they climbed higher above the ice moat, its surface shining below, a near-perfect mirror.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

The transformation is threatening the economic moats of advanced-manufacturing economies such as the European Union, Japan and South Korea.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

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

“Contrary to the share price, we think Meta’s engagement and monetization moats are deeper than ever and don’t see that changing,” he said.

From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026

I ate breakfast cheerily, watching the dust moats stirring in the sunlight that streamed in the back window.

From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

Related Words

• gully
• trench