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)
-
moots,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mooted,
past participle, past
-
mooting
present participle
noun
-
moots
plural
-
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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mootsimple
-
mootssimple
-
have mootedperfect
-
has mootedperfect
-
am mootingprogressive
-
are mootingprogressive
-
is mootingprogressive
-
have been mootingperfect progressive
-
has been mootingperfect progressive
Past
-
mootedsimple
-
had mootedperfect
-
was mootingprogressive
-
were mootingprogressive
-
had been mootingperfect progressive
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
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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:
Charter made the 13 years of that moot by buying Cox.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
We know any such charges would be litigated to death, and by the time it finally came to trial, he might very well be dead, and the case would be moot.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
In many of his speeches and congressional testimonies during the latter half of the 1990s, Greenspan argued that structural shifts in the economy, particularly concerning productivity, had rendered the Phillips- curve theory moot.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
The great movement toward corporate concentration might have collapsed and antitrust law would have become almost moot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Judge Davies spoke emphatically: “You are excused, gentlemen, but you understand that this is a moot question. The hearing will proceed.”
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
The states on Tuesday said the addition of Alex Fairly, who owns a medical billing negotiation firm and lives in Amarillo, moots the motion to transfer the case.
From Reuters ● Mar. 1, 2023
“The president’s pardon, which General Flynn has accepted, moots this case,” the Justice Department filing said.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2020
Five of those suspects are in the county jail pending trials — four of them held without bond on serious charges that preclude release, which Elrich noted moots the urgency in the detainer debate.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2019
“New legislation or regulations giving plaintiffs all they seek moots the case,” wrote Zachary W. Carter, corporation counsel for New York City.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2019
"The cases were put" after the earlier repast, and twice or thrice a week moots were "brought in" after the later meal.
From A Book About Lawyers by John Cordy Jeaffreson
One potential opportunity is their mooted move to the A-list haven of the Cotswolds, where they are believed to have spent time earlier this summer.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Promoter Eddie Hearn said there are "many, many more chapters to write" in Joshua's career, beginning with the long-awaited meeting with Fury, which is mooted to take place later this year.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
And some of the bank's governors had already mooted a possible rates hike, she added.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
The good news is the mooted deal doesn’t speak only of “highly enriched uranium.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
It is under this rule that the greater number of the mooted questions in the application of copyright law have arisen in respect to the scope of copyright.
From Copyright: Its History and Its Law by Richard Rogers Bowker
The Italian lender made a $35 billion cash-and-share offer for MPS shortly after competitor Banco BPM said it was itself mooting a merger with the smaller bank.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
Mr Johnson's government has previously raised the prospect of relocation before, first mooting the move in January 2020.
From BBC ● May 16, 2022
“Well, certainly your honor. It’s been amended,” Giuliani replied, mooting nearly everything he had just argued.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2020
The parties eventually agreed on questioning behind closed doors and release of a public transcript, mooting the case.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 25, 2019
He knew what this exaltation of spirits indicated, and divined that the moment was opportune for the mooting of his diabolical scheme.
From A Desperate Voyage by Edward Frederick Knight
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.
