Moot

/muːt/ · adjective

Meaning

(current in UK, rare in the US) Subject to discussion (originally at a moot); arguable, debatable, unsolved or impossible to solve..

Definitions by Sense

1. (current in UK, rare in the US) Subject to discussion (originally at a moot); arguable, debatable, unsolved or impossible to solve.
2. (Canada, US, chiefly law) Being an exercise of thought; academic.
3. (Canada, US, uncommon in the UK) Having no practical consequence or relevance.
4. A moot court.
5. A system of arbitration in many areas of Africa in which the primary goal is to settle a dispute and reintegrate adversaries into society rather than assess penalties.
6. (scouting) A gathering of Rovers, usually in the form of a camp lasting two weeks.
7. (paganism) A social gathering of pagans, normally held in a public house.
8. (historical) An assembly (usually for decision-making in a locality).

Example Sentences

[…] :indeed we were obligd to hawl off rather in a hurry for the wind freshning a little we found ourselves in a bay which it was a moot point whether or not we could get out of: […]

[T]he uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.

The extent to which these Parisian radicals ‘represented’ the French people as a whole was very moot.

That point may make for a good discussion, but it is moot.

The question [whether certain poetry was present in the original Hebrew Psalms] in our own time is moot, since various considerations have made it certain that, of all the hazards presented by biblical translation, a dangerous excess of beauty is not one of them.

The pleading used in courts and chancery called moots.

A number of other mergers of U.S. railroads are mooted, but the I.C.C. [Interstate Commerce Commission] has made it clear that its assent to the N.& W.-Virginian proposal, which was unopposed by competitors or stockholders, should not be taken as an indication that others will swiftly pass its scrutiny.

The general idea was first mooted a couple of years ago by Philip Hammond, then Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, as a means of encouraging the EU to strike a friendly Brexit deal with the UK.

Synonyms for moot

Antonyms for moot

Related Words

Word Forms

• more moot
• most moot
• moots
• mooting
• mooted

Usage Notes

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