moot
/ˈmʊt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.23 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Subject to discussion (originally at a moot); arguable, debatable, unsolved or impossible to solve.
noun
A moot court.
noun
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.
noun
A social gathering of pagans, normally held in a public house.
noun
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."
Etymology
From Middle English mōt, ȝemōt, from Old English *mōt, ġemōt (“meeting”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to encounter, come”). Cognate with Scots mut, mote (“meeting, assembly”), Low German Mööt (“meeting”), Moot (“meeting”), archaic Dutch (ge)moet (“meeting”), Danish møde (“meeting”), Swedish möte (“meeting”), Norwegian møte (“meeting”), Icelandic mót (“meeting, tournament, meet”). Related to meet. The adjective derives from the noun.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Canadian usage
- American usage
- Obsolete
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Australian usage
Inflected Forms
more moot (comparative)
most moot (superlative)
moots (plural)
moots (present, singular)
mooting (participle, present)
mooted (participle, past)
mooted (past)