mottled

[mot-ld]

adjective

1. spotted or blotched in coloring.

mottled

/ ˈmɒtəld /

adjective

1. coloured with streaks or blotches of different shades

Other Word Forms

• unmottled adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mottled¹

First recorded in 1670–80; mottle + -ed ²

Example Sentences

The effect is dark and mottled — it looks as if the concrete has swallowed the color.

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The earliest such representations were found on a mottled pink sandstone dating back about 2,000 years and began to be recognised through the sacred symbol of an endless knot on the teachers' chest.

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More than a century later, fine particles of pollution still clung to its feathers, dulling what once was a scarlet red breast to a mottled gray.

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But there’s something dingy and gross, like mottled drifts of old snow, about the overweening influence of Trump’s courtiers and their grubbing relationship with a president so obviously enamored of money and flattery.

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As dawn breaks and dusk settles, the play of light and shadow turns the river green or gunmetal gray, lustrously pearlescent or mottled brown.

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Related Words

• marbled www.thesaurus.com
• streaked www.thesaurus.com