linchpin
noun
Did you know?
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
Tomas Gorny,
Forbes.com,
1 July 2026
The reusability of SpaceX’s new super-heavy rocket is the linchpin of the technology conglomerate’s future success, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
—
Tobias Burns,
CNBC,
1 July 2026
La Clim, air-conditioning, is the linchpin of an intensifying political debate in France.
—
Doreen St. Félix,
New Yorker,
27 June 2026
But understand this, that this industry is the linchpin of what heats in our homes and how the lights stay on.
—
Tim Dunn,
Boston Herald,
24 June 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 2 Jul. 2026.
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linchpin
noun
