Pivot Pivot Legend of Hyrule A pivot /ˈpɪvət/ is that on which something turns.

In Mechanical engineering and machinery, it is a Metal pointed PIN or short Shaft, such as the end of an Axle or Spindle. The term occurs frequently in combination with others, for example "pivot-gearing" for a system of gearing in machinery which admits of the shifting of the axis of a driving Wheel, so that the power may be communicated in various directions.

In Linguistics, the Syntactic pivot is the argument of the Verb around which the sentence "revolves" - typically the one that the verb agrees with, the one that can be sometimes be omitted and assumed to remain the same as in previous sentences, etc. (in nominative-accusative languages, this is the argument we call "subject").

In Mathematics, specifically Linear algebra, a pivot is the first non-zero value of each row of a matrix after the matrix has been converted to row echelon form. The number of pivots in a matrix is equal to the rank of the matrix.

Pivot is also the abbreviated name (full name: Pivotlog) of a free weblog tool written in PHP.

An early portable MS-DOS computer was named the Pivot; it had a keyboard that folded down from the screen.