moat
Americannoun
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a deep, wide trench, usually filled with water, surrounding the rampart of a fortified place, such as a town or a castle.
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any trench, such as one used for confining animals in a zoo.
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a competitive advantage a business has in its field.
The company's moat was reduced when the patent on the devices they sold expired.
noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of moat
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English mote, from Old French: “clod, mound,” of obscure origin
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Software “moats”—the structural advantages that repel competition—come more from reputation and community support.
Do you have a framework for thinking about which software companies are more exposed and which have more of a moat in all this?
From Barron's
“But here is the critical distinction that the market is failing to make: a narrower moat does not mean zero terminal value,” he says.
From MarketWatch
It is leaning into its area expertise to drive adoption, and hoping that will provide a moat to protect it from the AI onslaught.
From Barron's
He says AI was never a big threat to the company anyway, given its focus on consumer-to-consumer and re-commerce sales, as well as its global scale and built-in shipping and payment moat.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
