mote

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mote"

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /moʊt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məʊt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊt
• Homophone: moat

Etymology 1

From Middle English mot, from Old English mot (“grain of sand; mote; atom”), from Proto-West Germanic *mot (“grain of dirt or sand, speck”). Perhaps linked to English mud.

Compare West Frisian mot (“peat dust”), Dutch mot (“dust from turf; sawdust; grit”), Low German mut (“peat dust, grit”), Norwegian mutt (“speck; mote; splinter; chip”), Italian mota (“mud”), Spanish mota (“speck”).

Noun

mote (plural motes)

1. (literary or puristic, otherwise archaic) A small particle; a speck.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 7:5:

     Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

   • a. 1729, Edward Taylor, Meditation. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare a place for you:

     What shall a Mote up to a Monarch rise?
     An Emmet match an Emperor in might?

   • 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 9:

     I wanted to shrink myself to a mote of dust, plunge into this pool I held in my own cyclopean hands, soar down these runs of light to places where light itself was born from this colloquy of dust.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:modicum

Derived terms

• dustmote
• moted
• moteless
• motelike
• motey

Translations

A small particle; a speck

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: բեկորիկ (bekorik), շյուղ (hy) (šyuġ)
• Bulgarian: прашинка (bg) (prašinka)
• Czech: smítko (cs) n
• Dutch: stofdeeltje (nl) n, vuiltje (nl) n
• Estonian: kübe
• Finnish: hiukkanen (fi), hitunen (fi)
• French: atome (fr) m
• Galician: argueiro m, lixo (gl) m
• Georgian: მტვერი (mṭveri)
• German: Stäubchen (de) n
• Hebrew: גרגיר אבק m (gargír avák)
• Icelandic: ögn f, rykögn f, korn (is) n
• Irish: cáithnín m
• Italian: pagliuzza (it) f
• Japanese: ほこり (ja) (hokori), ちり (ja) (chiri), 微粉 (ja) (びふん, bifun)
• Middle English: mot
• Polish: pyłek (pl) m
• Portuguese: partícula (pt) f
• Russian: пыли́нка (ru) f (pylínka), сори́нка (ru) f (sorínka)
• Spanish: mota (es) f
• Swedish: smolk (sv), grand (sv)
• Telugu: నలక (te) (nalaka)
• Turkish: parçacık (tr), tanecik (tr), zerre (tr)
• Ukrainian: порошинка f (porošynka), пилинка f (pylynka)

See also

• floater

Etymology 2

From Middle English moten, from Old English mōtan (“to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compelled to, may, must”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtaną (“to be able to, have to, be delegated”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to acquire, possess, be in charge of”). Cognate with Dutch moeten (“to have to, must”), German müssen (“to have to, must”), Ancient Greek μέδω (médō, “to prevail, dominate, rule over”). Related to empty.

Verb

mote (third-person singular simple present mote, no present participle, simple past and past participle must)

1. (archaic) May or might. [from 9th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     he […] kept aloofe for dread to be descryde, / Untill fit time and place he mote espy, / Where he mote worke him scath and villeny.

2. (obsolete) Must. [9th–17th c.]
3. (archaic) Forming subjunctive expressions of wish: may. [from 9th c.]
   • 1980, Erica Jong, Fanny:

     ‘I shall not take Vengeance into my own Hands. The Goddess will do what She will.’ ‘So mote it be,’ said the Grandmaster.

Usage notes

• Generally takes an infinitive without to.

Derived terms

• so mote it be

Etymology 3

See moot (“a meeting”).

Noun

mote (plural motes)

1. (obsolete) A meeting for discussion.

   a wardmote in the city of London

2. (obsolete) A body of persons who meet for discussion, especially about the management of affairs.

   a folk mote

3. (obsolete) A place of meeting for discussion.

Derived terms

• burghmote
• folk-mote
• hallmote
• mote bell
• portmote
• shiremote
• shire-mote
• swainmote
• wardmote
• woodmote

Etymology 4

Clipping of remote, with allusion to the other sense of mote (“a speck of dust”).

Noun

mote (plural motes)

1. A tiny computer for remote sensing; a component element of smartdust.

Anagrams

• -tome, Tome, tome

Albanian

Noun

mote

1. indefinite nominative/accusative plural of mot

Inari Sami

Etymology

From Proto-Samic *moδē.

Noun

mote

1. mud

Inflection

Even e-stem, t-đ gradation
Nominative	mote
Genitive	mođe
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mote	mođeh
Accusative	mođe	muuđijd
Genitive	mođe	muđij muuđij
Illative	motán	muuđijd
Locative	moođeest	muuđijn
Comitative	muuđijn	muđijguin
Abessive	mođettáá	muđijttáá
Essive	motteen
Partitive	motteed
Possessive forms Singular Dual Plural 1st person — — — 2nd person — — — 3rd person — — —

Further reading

• mote in Marja-Liisa Olthuis, Taarna Valtonen, Miina Seurujärvi and Trond Trosterud (2015–2022), Nettidigisäänih Anarâškiela-suomakielâ-anarâškielâ sänikirje‎^[1], Tromsø: UiT

• Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎^[2], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Italian

Noun

mote f pl

1. plural of mota

Anagrams

• Temo, temo

Japanese

Romanization

mote

1. Rōmaji transcription of もて

Latin

Participle

mōte

1. vocative masculine singular of mōtus

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French mote and Medieval Latin mota.

Alternative forms

• mot

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔːt(ə)/

Noun

mote (plural motes)

1. A natural or man-made mound; hill

Descendants

• ⇒ Yola: mothee

References

• “mōte, n.¹”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

mote

1. inflection of moten (“to have to”):
   1. present subjunctive singular
   2. present indicative/subjunctive plural

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French mode. Compare mode.

Noun

mote m (definite singular moten, indefinite plural moter, definite plural motene)

1. fashion

Derived terms

• motebevisst
• motehus
• moteshow
• moteverden

References

• “mote” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From French mode.

Noun

mote m (definite singular moten, indefinite plural motar, definite plural motane)

1. fashion

Derived terms

• motebevisst
• motehus
• moteshow
• motemedveten, motemedviten

References

• “mote” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Verb

mōst

1. singular present subjunctive of mōtan

Portuguese

Etymology

From Provençal mot or French mot (“word”); see also Italian motto (“word”).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.t͡ʃi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.t͡ʃi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.te/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.tɨ/

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɔt͡ʃi, (Portugal) -ɔtɨ
• Hyphenation: mo‧te

Noun

mote m (plural motes)

1. motto

Further reading

• “mote”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “mote”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “mote”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmote/ [ˈmo.t̪e]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ote
• Syllabification: mo‧te

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French mot (“word, saying”) or Occitan mot.

Noun

mote m (plural motes)

1. nickname
2. motto (heraldry)

Related terms

• motejar

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Quechua mut'i.

Noun

mote m (plural motes)

1. (South America) hulled cereal, especially pearl barley and hominy

Derived terms

• mote con huesillos, mote con huesillo
• mote de maíz
• mote de trigo

Further reading

• “mote”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024
• “mote”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010

Volapük

Noun

mote

1. dative singular of mot