mote

¹ American  

[moht] / moʊt /

noun

• motes
  plural

1. a small particle or speck, especially of dust.

2. moit.

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mote ² American  

[moht] / moʊt /

verb

Archaic.

• moste
  past

1. may or might.

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mote ¹ British  

/ məʊt /

noun

1. a tiny speck

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mote ² British  

/ məʊt /

verb

1. archaic (takes an infinitive without to) may or might

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• motey
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• motes
  plural

Conjugated Forms

Present

• mote
  simple

Past

• moste
  simple

Etymology

Origin of mote¹

before 1000; Middle English, Old English mot speck; cognate with Dutch mot grit, sawdust, Norwegian mutt speck

Origin of mote²

before 900; Middle English mot ( e ), Old English mōt; cognate with German muss. See must ¹

Explanation

Say the word: mote. It's short and quick, isn't it? The word corresponds to its meaning, which is something tiny: a speck of dust, a bit of fluff, a speckle of gold in the prospector's pan. We're not sure of the origin of the word mote, except that it is related to Germanic words meaning "sawdust or grit, tiny dust particles." We think of a mote as the tiniest of objects, but astronomer Carl Sagan demonstrates a different perspective when he looked at a photograph of Earth taken from a great distance by Voyager I and said, "We live on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mote motes moste

But even he receives a mote of benediction, especially when he commits sins he can’t undo.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2025

Bangladesh, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, has raised fuel prices by mote than 50% in just a week.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2022

The bee tugged diligently at a mote of the muck with her mouthparts, then carried it away.

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2020

After the issue was resolved, another mote of organic material began to threaten the mission’s launch.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 25, 2020

After he’d learned his own way around, it would be up to him to take risks for himself—if he wanted to make mote and quicker money.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

How do you get from microscopic motes to entire worlds thousands of kilometers across?

From Scientific American ● Dec. 8, 2020

“What he came to believe, I think deeply and honestly, was that human beings were insignificant little dust motes in this enormous universe and that eventually we would discover that we were not particularly significant.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2020

But the superconducting sensors could measure only the average field across the zircons, which are as small as motes of dust.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 22, 2020

Adora is one of many reasons tension hangs over everything in Camille’s small town like an August humidity, but “Sharp Objects” refuses to spice the narrative’s tragedy with wit or motes of humor.

From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2018

The sun slanted through the dirty attic window, lighting the dust motes dancing in the air.

From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan

Round Continent, they wrote, “produces the moste dear skins,” while the “Round and Long Continents are the best history and story righting in the world, and best artests.”

From Slate ● May 28, 2015

Even in Piers Plowman we read: “For these aren men on this molde that moste harm worcheth, To the pore peple that parcel-mele buyggen Thei rychen thorow regraterye.”

From Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Alice Morse Earle

So that whan sche receyueth newe, sche moste restore the olde to the abbes.

From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Power

Ech man wot wel, that at a kinges feeste Hath plentee, to the moste and to the leeste, And deyntees mo than been in my knowing.

From Chaucer and His Times by Grace E. Hadow

And for that euery man hath not the knowlege to discerne which of these is the cause of let in sweatyng, I wil shewe you plainly howe to do with moste suretie and leste offense.

From The Sweating Sickness A boke or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweate or sweatyng sicknesse by John Caius