as in ditches
a deep, wide excavation that is usually filled with water and that goes around the walls of a place (such as a castle) to protect it from being attacked
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Recent Examples of moats
Install an Ant Moat Ant moats are little basins that hold water that are hung above hummingbird feeders.
—
Peg Aloi, The Spruce, 7 Feb. 2026
Funding costs, liquidity stability, capital treatment, and regulatory accountability are moats.
—Zennon Kapron, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
Klein added European businesses could use AI to build wider moats, urging business leaders to take risks and the European Union to deregulate to unlock greater capital and talent.
—Tasmin Lockwood,hugh Leask, CNBC, 22 Jan. 2026
OpenAI and Google are in a virtual tie, though OpenAI has fewer defensive moats and must innovate quickly to retain its lead.
—Geoff Colvin, Fortune, 22 Dec. 2025
Put another way, the castles of these companies' profit engines are protected by moats.
—NPR, 21 Oct. 2025
Peg Aloi, The Spruce, 7 Feb. 2026
Funding costs, liquidity stability, capital treatment, and regulatory accountability are moats.
—Zennon Kapron, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
Klein added European businesses could use AI to build wider moats, urging business leaders to take risks and the European Union to deregulate to unlock greater capital and talent.
—Tasmin Lockwood,hugh Leask, CNBC, 22 Jan. 2026
OpenAI and Google are in a virtual tie, though OpenAI has fewer defensive moats and must innovate quickly to retain its lead.
—Geoff Colvin, Fortune, 22 Dec. 2025
Put another way, the castles of these companies' profit engines are protected by moats.
—NPR, 21 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for moats
Noun
-
The ditches drop deep into scraggly forest on either side of that road, and in the winter, cars often slide off and topple down the hill.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
4 Feb. 2026
-
This does not include cars that slide into ditches or crashes reported to local authorities.—
Natalie Davies,
Freep.com,
29 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Dig Trenches or Holes For a large planting, trenches are an efficient way to plant seed potatoes.—
Sheryl Geerts,
Better Homes & Gardens,
6 Feb. 2026
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The company’s founder and CEO Kelly Garner brings two decades of narrative content experience from the traditional TV trenches, having produced for CBS, Bravo, and NBC before ascending to executive roles at NBCUniversal and Syfy/USA.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Officials had worried that a system of dikes along the Skagit River would fail, and potentially inundate parts of Mount Vernon, a riverside town of about 35,000.—
Evan Bush,
NBC news,
13 Dec. 2025
-
Chinese mitten crabs burrow into levees, dikes, and stream banks, increasing erosion and threatening flood-control systems.—
Staff Author Updated,
PEOPLE,
3 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
Lazar says strong winds blew this new snow into gullies and depressions, depositing it onto older layers of snow.—
Madison Dapcevich,
Outside,
13 Jan. 2026
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Extra caution is also advised around ridgelines, gullies, and terrain features, where wind-drifted, stiffer slabs of snow tend to form.—
Callie Zanandrie,
CBS News,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
The area has deep ravines and dense vegetation.—
Jacqueline Charles,
Miami Herald,
6 Feb. 2026
-
Low fence markers can be seen outlining the building zone along Route 2, which slopes along open land, wooded patches and some ravines.—
Anna Ortiz,
Chicago Tribune,
31 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Moats.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/moats. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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