Word.ws English Dictionary

pivot

UK/ˈpɪv.ɪt/

pivot noun: a thing on which something turns; specifically a metal pointed pin or short shaft in machinery, such as the end of an axle or spindle.

Noun

pivot (plural pivots)

  1. A thing on which something turns; specifically a metal pointed pin or short shaft in machinery, such as the end of an axle or spindle.
    • The weight of the body and the traction and braking forces are taken by the conventional dished bogie centre pivot with phosphor-bronze liner; this type of centre pivot facilitates passage over marshalling yard humps.1962 December, “The B.R. standard diesel-electric Type 1 locomotive”, in Modern Railways, page 382
  2. (broadly, figuratively) Something or someone having a paramount significance in a certain situation.
    • “The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely...1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition...
    • Sandy Weill was the man who stitched Citigroup together in the 1990s and in the process helped bury the Glass-Steagall act, a Depression-era law separating retail and investment banking. Last month he performed a perfect pivot: he now wants regulators to undo his previous work.2012 August 18, “Banking reform: Sticking together”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2023, issue
  3. Act of turning on one foot.
  4. The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place while the company or line moves around him in wheeling.
  5. (roller derby) A player with responsibility for co-ordinating their team in a particular jam.
  6. An element of a set to be sorted that is chosen as a midpoint, so as to divide the other elements into two groups to be dealt with recursively.
  7. A pivot table.
  8. Any of a row of captioned elements used to navigate to subpages, rather like tabs.
  9. An element of a matrix that is used as a focus for row operations, such as dividing the row by the pivot, or adding multiples of the row to other rows making all other values in the pivot column 0.
  10. A pivotal quantity.
  11. (Canadian) A quarterback.
  12. A circle runner.
  13. (US) A shift during a general election in a political candidate's messaging to reflect plans and values more moderate than those advocated during the primary.

Verb

pivot (third-person singular simple present pivots, present participle pivoting, simple past and past participle pivoted)

  1. (intransitive) To turn on an exact spot.
  2. (slang) To change the direction of a business, usually in response to changes in the market.
    • Mr. Shah’s new business has signed up 25 New York City hotels and raised $1.5 million from angel investors and $3 million from a seed round. Yet three months into his new project, he has had to pivot again, realizing that his best customers are large businesses, not individuals.2017 December 6, Caitlin Kelly, “For Entrepreneurs, a Tough Moment: The Pivot”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2022
    • “Entrepreneurs usually have some inkling about a problem they can solve,” he said. “But typically they’re not exactly right. So if you survive long enough, you pivot and pivot and pivot and find what sticks.”2020 January 10, Paul Sullivan, “The Secret of Their Success: It’s Not About the Money”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2021
  3. (US) To shift a political candidate's messaging during a general election to reflect plans and values more moderate than those advocated during the primary.

pivot meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pivot in Hindi

धुरी, पाइवोट

pivot in Tamil

மைய ஆதாரம், சுழலியக்க மையம், சுழல் மையம், சுழற்சித் தானம், சுழற்சித்தானம், சுழற்சிப் புள்ளி

pivot in Marathi

पिव्होट, पिव्हट, पिव्होट करणे

pivot in Urdu

چول, مدار, محور
More languagesFewer languages
pivot in Bengali
অক্ষ, কেন্দ্রবিন্দু
pivot in Telugu
పైవట్, ఇరుసు, పైవాట్
pivot in Malayalam
ചുഴിക്കുറ്റി, മുളയാണി, സാരഭാഗം, ഭ്രമണാധാരം
pivot in Kannada
ತಿರುಗುಗೂಟ, ಅಚ್ಚುಗೂಟ, ತಿರುಗಾಣಿ, ತಿರುಗಣೆ
pivot in Punjabi
ਪਾਈਵਟ, ਧੁਰੀ
pivot in Gujarati
પીવટ, પાઇવોટ, પાઇવટ
pivot in Odia
ପିଭଟ୍, ପାଇଭଟ୍, ପିଭଟ୍ କରିବାକୁ
pivot in Nepali
पिभोट, पिभट, पाइवोट
pivot in Malay
pangsi
pivot in Indonesian
pangsi

Examples of pivot in a sentence

  • IBM utilized the dramatic structure known as emotional pivot in their ads about a company needing to cut costs and IBM products being the solution.
  • The laptop ad that first showed an IT team with a problem and then showed FooCorp as the solution used emotional pivot as its dramatic structure.
  • Her fans (they call themselves CoHorts) point to these unexpected pivots as part of Hoover's appeal.

All 40 example sentences with pivot

Forms of pivot

Noun
pluralpivots
Verb
third-person singular presentpivots
present participlepivoting
past participlepivoted
pastpivoted

Past tense of pivot: pivoted

Plural of pivot: pivots

Origin of pivot

From Middle English pevet, *pivot, from Old French pivot (“hinge pin, pivot”) (12th c.), possibly from Latin pūgiō.

Words formed from pivot

Phrases with pivot

Words that rhyme with pivot

Questions about pivot

What does pivot mean?
Pivot means a thing on which something turns; specifically a metal pointed pin or short shaft in machinery, such as the end of an axle or spindle.
What is pivot in Hindi?
Pivot in Hindi is धुरी, पाइवोट. See Pivot meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is pivot?
Pivot can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pivot?
Pivot is pronounced /ˈpɪv.ɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of pivot?
The plural of pivot is pivots.

Words near pivot in the dictionary

  1. PIVKA
  2. PIVKAs
  3. pivmecillinam
  4. pivo
  5. pivopril
  6. pivot
  7. pivot bridge
  8. pivot bridges
  9. pivot gearing
  10. pivot gun
  11. pivot guns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pivot (page history and authors); pivot (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pivot (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pivot (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pivot (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pivot (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pivot (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pivot (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pivot (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pivot (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pivot (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pivot (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pivot (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pivot.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pivot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pivot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.