linchpin
noun
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In his 1857 novel, Tom Brown’s School Days, Thomas Hughes describes the “cowardly” custom of “taking the linch-pins out of the farmers’ and bagmens’ gigs at the fairs.” The linchpin in question held the wheel on the carriage, and removing it made it likely that the wheel would come off as the vehicle moved. Such a pin was called a lynis in Old English; Middle English speakers added pin to form lynspin. By the early 20th century, English speakers were using linchpin for anything as critical to a complex situation as a linchpin is to a wagon, as when Winston Churchill, in 1930, wrote of Canada and the role it played in the relationship between Great Britain and the United States, that “no state, no country, no band of men can more truly be described as the linchpin of peace and world progress.”
Examples of linchpin in a Sentence
Brian Steinberg, Variety, 3 Apr. 2026
Countries around the world are scrambling to secure lithium supply — the linchpin of electrification, energy storage, and industrial competitiveness — in a bid to avoid supply shocks, protect jobs, and ensure that their clean energy transitions are held hostage by a few global players.
—Tiisetso Motsoeneng, semafor.com, 30 Mar. 2026
The unnamed former Global Risk employees remained the linchpin of Broidy’s lawsuit.
—David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2026
The movement frames these systems not merely as traffic technologies, but also as linchpins of an expanding government data dragnet – one that demands stronger democratic oversight and community consent.
—Jess Reia, The Conversation, 27 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for linchpin
Cite this Entry
“Linchpin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/linchpin. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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linchpin
noun
