I don’t think in US usage it is that the question has been decided. It is that some decision or event has happened that make deciding the question irrelevant.
So when the defendant drops dead during trial, his guilt becomes moot. Deciding on his guilt is pointless, and the case is dropped not because we have decided on his guilt, but because there is no reason to decide on his guilt.
A decision can render things moot. “After the PMs decided to cut the social features, account testing became moot.” But we haven’t decided on the results of account testing, whether the account features work or don’t work, we won’t even do account testing because there is no purpose to it anymore.
If we did account testing and found that the feature couldn’t be released because of major bugs and so the feature was cut, then the testing wasn’t moot. It’s only moot if the results of the testing are unimportant, whether we did them or not or whether the feature passed the test or not is irrelevant.
Hypothetical headline about a politician who wants to cancel the certification for a swim contest for talking-disabled people in Australia: Matt Might Make Mute Meet Moot, Mate.
Right… this isn’t the dictionary definition, but this is far and away its most common use (at least in the US today and for as long as I can remember).
The question of if Larry Summers would make a good Fed chairman is of little or no practical value or meaning and is purely academic, because he has withdrawn from consideration. We could debate it, but it would be of no practical value because he’s not going to be Fed Chairman.
That’s close, but not the same thing as how it’s commonly used.
There was a discussion on here for a while about “How far could Superman hit a baseball?” This is basically an academic discussion with little practical value. But it isn’t likely to be referred to as moot.
Moot as rendered obsolete or irrelevant by a recent occurrence is a particular set of circumstances.
How would Tyson in his prime have fared against Ali in his prime <— academic, but generally not referred to as moot.
“We spent a week debating whether we could afford tickets to the Mike Tyson fight, but now that whole discussion has been rendered moot because he’s been arrested and the fight’s been canceled” <— not academic discussion, made pointless by events.
Here it seems to mean “pondering” or “proposing” .I’m not sure.
Draft moots cut in homework
…A draft guidelines document released by the Ministry of Education suggests homework may become a thing of the past for younger students. However, this and other suggestions on alleviating academic burdens have stirred up a debate among experts and teachers.