A pivot is a change or shift in direction, often used by businesses and teams to adapt to new situations. It can also refer to a point of rotation.
When people talk about pivoting, they usually mean that something has changed course or adjusted its goals. For example, a startup might launch with an idea for a social media app, but after seeing how users behave, they pivot and turn it into a platform for online events. This means they're changing their focus to better fit the needs of their customers. The word "pivot" can also be used in sports, like basketball or dance, where a player or performer rotates around a central point – this is more about physical movement than business strategy.
How common is "pivot"?
Word pivot is considered rare in modern English. It appears most frequently in magazine texts and less often in other writings.
Definitions
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.
(figuratively, by extension) Something or someone having a paramount significance in a certain situation.
Act of turning on one foot.
(military) The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place while the company or line moves around him in wheeling.
(roller derby) A player with responsibility for co-ordinating their team in a particular jam.
(programming) 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.
(computing) A pivot table.
(graphical user interface) Any of a row of captioned elements used to navigate to subpages, rather like tabs.
(mathematics) 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.
(statistics) A pivotal quantity.
(Canadian football) A quarterback.
(handball) A circle runner.
(US, politics) 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.
