mote
1 Americanverb
-
moste
past
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Conjugated Forms
Present
Past
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."
Vocabulary lists containing mote
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
He noted that Jesus Christ, who was the original pundit, said to “cast out the beam in our own eye before we cast out the mote in the eye of another.”
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2022
And we as humans, temporary inhabitants of a dust mote, as Carl Sagan said, did what we had to do.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2022
After the issue was resolved, another mote of organic material began to threaten the mission’s launch.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 25, 2020
I’m sorry I made your time on this rock, this stupid little mote of dust, harder and not easier.
From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin
As workers wiped away the last motes of construction dust in the new Paddington station for the Elizabeth line, Byford took a group of international reporters through the system for a tour.
From Washington Post ● May 12, 2022
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
Blanchett adeptly realizes these motes of internal struggle throughout the series, which makes the moments when she drops her façade and voices her aggravation at having to dim her abilities pay off splendidly.
From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2020
Dust motes swam ghostlike in the empty room.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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
A Booke declaring the fearfull vexation of one Alexander Nyndge, Beynge moste Horriblye tormented wyth an euyll spirit, the xx. daie of Januarie.
From Witch Stories by E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton
Whenne lyfe ys moste louyde, and dethe ys moste hatyde, Dethe drawythe hys draughte, and makythe man nakyde.
From Erthe Upon Erthe by Various
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
Which bookes be to be sold to him who shal gyue the moste for ye same London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co, . . .
From A Catalogue of Books in English Later than 1700 (Vol 1 of 3) Forming a portion of the library of Robert Hoe by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
