Moot or mute?
moot is an adjective meaning “Being an exercise of thought; academic”; mute is an adjective meaning “Not having the power of speech; dumb”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) mute is about 2.7 times as common as moot.
What is the difference between moot and mute?
| moot | mute | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | adjective, noun, verb |
| Meaning | CanadaUSBeing an exercise of thought; academic CanadaUSHaving no practical consequence or relevance A moot court | Not having the power of speech; dumb Silent; not making a sound A person who does not have the power of speech |
| Example | […] :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… | […] The heathens have broken into Thy Temple, and Thou art silent! Esau mocks Thy Children, and Thou remainest mute! Show thyself, arise… |
| Forms | none | muter, mutest |
| Pronunciation | /muːt/ /ˈmʊt/ | /mjuːt/ /mjʉwt/ /mjut/ |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words | 4.6 times per million words |
Sources: moot and mute in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of moot and mute
moot
- 1
CanadaUSBeing an exercise of thought; academic
- 2
A moot court
- 3
To bring up as a subject for debate
- 4
ScotlandA whisper, or an insinuation, also gossip or rumors
- 5
AustraliaThe vagina
- 6
The stump of a tree; the roots and bottom end of a felled tree
- 7
To take root and begin to grow
- 8
A mutual follower on a social media platform
Eid Mubarak to all my muslim moots out there
mute
- 1
Not having the power of speech; dumb
- 2
A person who does not have the power of speech
- 3
To silence, to make quiet
- 4
The faeces of a hawk or falcon
- 5
To cast off; to moult
- 6
Silent; not making a sound
[…] The heathens have broken into Thy Temple, and Thou art silent! Esau mocks Thy Children, and Thou remainest mute! Show thyself, arise, and let Thy Voice resound, Thou mutest…
- 7
A hired mourner at a funeral; an undertaker's assistant
- 8
To turn off the sound of
Please mute the music while I make a call
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, moot or mute?
moot appears 1.7 times per million words; mute 4.6 times per million words.
moot 1.7 times per million wordsmute 4.6 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search moot vs mute?
“moot vs mute” is searched about 320 times a month on Google and 40 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“mute vs moot”, “moot or mute”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.