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
Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 12 Nov. 2025
Adrien Bousseau, a senior researcher at Inria Centre at Université Côte d’Azur who evaluated Lin, Lukáč and Leake’s work but was not involved in the paper, said Refashion could set the stage for a greener way forward with technology as the linchpin.
—Meghan Hall, Sourcing Journal, 11 Nov. 2025
The agreement marks a rare bipartisan pivot amid deep partisan divides, with ACA subsidies emerging as the linchpin for compromise.
—Hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Nov. 2025
Despite myriad changes at parent company Paramount Skydance, Jon Stewart is hoping to remain as the linchpin of Comedy Central‘s The Daily Show.
—Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 26 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for linchpin
Cite this Entry
“Linchpin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/linchpin. Accessed 17 Nov. 2025.
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linchpin
noun
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