Word.ws English Dictionary

pivotal

UK/ˈpɪvɪtəl/US/ˈpɪvɪtəl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

pivotal adjective: of, relating to, or being a pivot.

Adjective

pivotal (comparative more pivotal, superlative most pivotal)

  1. Of, relating to, or being a pivot.
  2. (figuratively) Being of crucial importance; central, key.
    • It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today […].2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19
    • "Crucially, HS2 is already playing a pivotal role in helping Britain's post-pandemic economic recovery.2021 January 13, “Packham initiates new petition opposing HS2”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 12
    Synonyms:
    polar

pivotal meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

pivotal in Urdu

محوری, مرکزی

pivotal in Malayalam

crucial, central, vital
അച്ചാണിയായ, ഭ്രമണകേന്ദ്രമായ, പരമപ്രധാനമായ, വളരെ പ്രാധാന്യമുള്ള, കേന്ദ്രീയമായ, മുല്പെട്ട

pivotal in Kannada

ತಿರುಗಾಣಿಯ, ಅಚ್ಚುಗೂಟದ, ಪ್ರಮುಖವಾದ, ಆಧಾರಭೂತವಾದ

Examples of pivotal in a sentence

  • The pivotal moment in the play was in the first scene of the second act.
  • The Oklahoma land rush was a pivotal event in the history of the American West.
  • The three stories highlight pivotal moments in Coast Salish history and traditional practices.

All 24 example sentences with pivotal

Synonyms of pivotal

Forms of pivotal

comparativemore pivotal
superlativemost pivotal

Origin of pivotal

From pivot + -al.

Words formed from pivotal

Phrases with pivotal

Questions about pivotal

What does pivotal mean?
Pivotal means of, relating to, or being a pivot.
What is pivotal in Urdu?
Pivotal in Urdu is محوری, مرکزی. See Pivotal meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is pivotal?
Pivotal is an adjective.
How do you pronounce pivotal?
Pivotal is pronounced /ˈpɪvɪtəl/ (UK).

Words near pivotal in the dictionary

  1. pivot teeth
  2. pivot tooth
  3. pivotability
  4. pivotable
  5. pivotably
  6. pivotal
  7. pivotal quantities
  8. pivotal quantity
  9. pivotality
  10. pivotally
  11. pivotalness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pivotal (page history and authors); pivotal (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pivotal (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); pivotal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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-pivotal.ogg.

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