moot

Formsmoots, mooting, mooted

Pluralmoots

1. 1
   adjectiveCanadaUS

   Having no practical relevance or consequence, so of purely academic interest.

   Once the company was sold, the question of who would lead it next year was moot.

   Once the concert was canceled, the argument over whether to drive or take the train was moot.

   UsageOften in a moot point (not incorrect: a mute point). British readers may hear it as still debatable, not irrelevant.

   Similaracademic, irrelevant, pointless, immaterial

   Oppositerelevant, pertinent

   Note

   In everyday American and Canadian English a moot point is one no longer worth arguing, because events have already settled it.

2. 2
   proposeverbtransitive

   To raise a question, idea, or proposal for discussion, or to discuss and debate it.

   Several names have been mooted as possible successors to the coach.

   Before anyone could moot an alternative, the chair closed the meeting.

   UsageMost often passive: names were mooted, first mooted by someone. A mooted idea is up for discussion, not dismissed.

   Similarpropose, suggest, raise, float, broach

3. 3
   make irrelevantverbUStransitive

   To make a question or issue irrelevant, or to declare it so.

   A settlement would moot the remaining claims in the lawsuit.

   The appeal was mooted when the city repealed the ordinance.

   UsageHere a mooted claim is set aside, while a mooted idea is up for discussion; the sentence must make clear which.

   Note

   Americans use it above all of disputes: a settlement, a repealed ordinance or a change in the facts moots a claim, leaving nothing to decide. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • A settlement can moot a claim. law.cornell.edu
   • Repealing an ordinance can moot a challenge to it. govinfo.gov
   • Changed circumstances can moot a claim by eliminating the controversy. law.cornell.edu
4. 4
   nouncountable

   A mock court in which law students argue hypothetical cases for practice.

   The team spent weeks preparing their arguments for the international moot.

   Judges from the local bar volunteered to sit on the spring moots.

   Note

   Practice pleading has carried this name for centuries: Thomas Elyot's The Boke Named the Governour (1531) already speaks of the pleading used in courts and chancery called moots. Today a moot is often a competition, with teams from different universities arguing before judges or practicing lawyers, and the activity itself is mooting. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Thomas Elyot wrote The Boke Named the Governour. luminarium.org
   • The Boke Named the Governour was first published in 1531. celm.folger.edu
   • The name for practice pleading is centuries old: Elyot's text describes the exercise as pleading used in court and chancery, called moots. luminarium.org
   • Moot competitions involve university teams arguing before judges or practising lawyers. law.ox.ac.uk
5. 5
   open to debateadjectiveUK

   Open to argument or debate, and unsettled or perhaps impossible to settle.

   How much the minister knew about the deal remains a moot question.

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

   2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation

   UsageIn British use a moot point is still open to debate; Americans more often mean it no longer matters.

   Similardebatable, arguable, disputable, questionable, unresolved

   Oppositesettled, indisputable

   Note

   The adjective began with business fit to be argued out at the old local assembly, from Old English ġemōt, a meeting. It is current in Britain and rarer in the US, often in the phrase a moot point: in Moby-Dick it is still a moot point whether a whale be a fish. It can be graded, too; Colin Jones calls one question very moot. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The adjective originally described something open to discussion at a moot or assembly. en.wiktionary.org
   • Moot descends from Old English ġemōt, meaning a meeting or assembly. en.wiktionary.org
   • Moby-Dick contains the example about whether a whale is a fish. gutenberg.org
   • Colin Jones uses very moot of a question in The Great Nation. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   local assemblynounhistoricalcountable

   A local assembly, usually one that met to make decisions for its area.

   Freemen of the district gathered at the moot to hear disputes and agree on local rules.

   The great oak where the moot once met still stands outside the village.

   Similarassembly

   Note

   A word for the past now, used of the assemblies where a district met to hear disputes and settle its own affairs. The verbs grew beside it rather than from it: to debate comes from a Germanic verb meaning to meet, itself made from the word for a meeting, so a moot and mooting a question are close kin. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Moot historically denoted a local assembly for making decisions. en.wiktionary.org
   • Such assemblies handled disputes and public affairs. en.wikipedia.org
   • The English verb was inherited through earlier verbs rather than newly formed from the English noun. en.wiktionary.org
   • The ancestral Germanic verb meant to meet and was formed from a noun meaning meeting; the noun and verb therefore share an origin. en.wiktionary.org

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