Word of the Day

: November 19, 2024

moot

adjective MOOT

What It Means

Moot typically describes something that is no longer important or worth discussing. It can also describe something that is argued about but not possible for people to prove.

// I think they were wrong, but the point is moot. Their decision has been made and it can't be changed now.

// Perhaps they should have foreseen the effects of the change, but that point is moot.

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moot in Context

"Before the game, there were a few nerves, to be sure. People worried what a second straight loss would mean, about the team having to return to Dallas deflated and without momentum. Those concerns turned out to be moot, with a largely stress-free second half as the Celtics' lead ballooned to more than 20 points in the third quarter as the team never looked back." — Danny McDonald, et al., The Boston Globe, 18 June 2024

Did You Know?

To describe an argument as "moot" is to say that there's no point in discussing it further. In other words, a moot argument is one that has no practical or useful significance and is fit only for theoretical consideration, as in a classroom. It's no surprise, then, that the roots of moot are entwined with academia. The adjective moot followed a few centuries behind the noun moot, which comes from mōt, an Old English word meaning "assembly." Originally, moot referred to an Anglo-Saxon deliberative assembly that met primarily for the administration of justice. By the 16th century, functioning judicial moots had diminished, the only remnant being moot courts, academic mock courts in which law students could try hypothetical cases for practice. The earliest use of moot as an adjective was as a synonym of debatable, but because the cases students tried in moot courts had no bearing on the real world, the word gained the additional sense—used especially in North America—of "deprived of practical significance."