Dictionary

moot point en · NOUN

Etymology

From moot (“assembly”) + point.

Meanings

1. An issue that is subject to, or open for, discussion or debate, to which no satisfactory answer is found; originally, one to be definitively determined by an assembly of the people.
   • It is possible that a special hawthorn grew on this hill hundreds of years ago and that it was a meeting place. Hawthorns marked moots, or assemblies to decide issues of local importance and manorial courts. This one may still be a “moot point” – something arguable, undecided, contested, its original function lost generations ago. 2014 November 12, Paul Evans, “Burning red the hawthorn brings to mind moots and magic rituals”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • In this age of moot points—some mooter than others, others possibly a shade less moot than some—perhaps the mootest point of any is, What is happening to the drama now that July 1st is behind us? This surely is a point of which the mootness cannot escape the most ivory-domed. 1919 August, P. G. Wodehouse, “Prohibition and the Drama”, in Vanity Fair, page 21:
   • Exactly which of the songs on Small Change originated in London is a moot point. 2009, Barney Hoskyns, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, Faber & Faber, page 155:
2. An issue hardly worth debating because it is no longer practically applicable.
   • Until we rebuild downtown, whether we build more parking spaces is a moot point.
   • Who really owned that horse is a moot point now that it has run away.

Forms

Relateds

non-issue

Translations (33)

da åbent spørgsmål (issue that is open for debate) · ro punct de discuție (issue that is open for debate) · pl kwestia dyskusyjna (issue that is open for debate) · it questione di lana caprina (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · es irrelevancia (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · es por las [puras] huevas (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · es por las puras brevas (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · de akademische Frage (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · fi kiistanalainen kysymys (issue that is open for debate) · da stridspunkt (issue that is open for debate) · fi lillukanvarsi (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · de Streitpunkt (issue that is open for debate) · es por las puras (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · es punto de contención (issue that is open for debate) · fi tahtokysymys (issue that is open for debate) · de fragliche Sache (issue that is open for debate) · fr contentieux (issue that is open for debate) · es futilidad (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · ru спо́рный вопро́с (issue that is open for debate) · fi päätettävä asia (issue that is open for debate) · fi sivuseikka (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · da teoretisk spørgsmål (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · pl kwestia czysto akademicka (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · el αμφιλεγόμενο θέμα (issue that is open for debate) · da akademisk spørgsmål (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · fi epäolennainen kysymys (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · es inutilidad (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · es punto muerto (issue that has been rendered irrelevant) · de offene Frage (issue that is open for debate) · pl kwestia do dyskusji (issue that is open for debate) · cs předmět diskuse (issue that is open for debate) · uk спі́рне пита́ння (issue that is open for debate) · es por gusto (issue that has been rendered irrelevant)