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
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.
See Examples For:
Cruise’s ambition is moot if he’s otherwise resigned himself to crowd-pleasers, making his occasional enterprising choices look even more daring.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
And maybe it’s a moot point: Supplying all the copper to wire them would have led to a 25% shortfall of supply for the vital metal by 2040, according to S&P Global.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
The debate as to whether there should have been alterations to the leadership after the Ashes has become a moot point, because England have nevertheless ended in a post-Bazball era.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Charter made the 13 years of that moot by buying Cox.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
“Well, that’s a moot point. We’re with you now,” says Jackson.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
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
This man loves farming, that man law, While this one follows pathways martial— What moots it whither mortals turn?
From Songs and Other Verse by Eugene Field
The idea of building a Dangote refinery in east Africa was first mooted in April, and Lamu was chosen as the site only in July, while the company plans to have it operating by 2030.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
And some of the bank's governors had already mooted a possible rates hike, she added.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Given the going rate for midfielders, Newcastle would be in a strong position to command a premium for the Brazil starter, far more than the £60m mooted.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
A report that OpenAI was considering delaying its mooted public offering further soured already weak sentiment around the artificial-intelligence boom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
My hair will not stand on end for fear of that matter being mooted again.
From Memoirs of Leonora Christina Daughter of Christian IV. of Denmark; Written During Her Imprisonment in the Blue Tower at Copenhagen 1663-1685 by Leonora Christina Ulfeldt
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
The administration’s brief said “the mooting of the underlying case would also moot petitioners’ attempt to intervene.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2023
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
By that he hath heard one mooting and seen two plays, he thinks as basely of the university as a young sophister doth of the grammar-school.
From Character Writings of the 17th Century by Various
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.
