speckle
Americannoun
-
a small speck, spot, or mark, as on skin.
-
speckled coloring or marking.
verb (used with object)
-
speckles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
speckled,
past participle, past
-
speckling
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
specklesimple
-
specklessimple
-
have speckledperfect
-
has speckledperfect
-
am specklingprogressive
-
are specklingprogressive
-
is specklingprogressive
-
have been specklingperfect progressive
-
has been specklingperfect progressive
Past
-
speckledsimple
-
had speckledperfect
-
was specklingprogressive
-
were specklingprogressive
-
had been specklingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of speckle
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at speck, -le
Explanation
A speckle is a dot or dash of something — you might think you've painted the living room without spilling any paint, only to find a speckle of purple in the middle of the rug. Young children pouring their own cereal often leave a speckle of milk on the counter no matter how careful they are. You can also use speckle as a verb meaning "to scatter" or "to dot." For example, you could describe the black spots that speckle your cat, or talk about the stars that speckle the sky. Speckle most likely comes from the Old English word specca, "small spot or speck."
Vocabulary lists containing speckle
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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Bridge to Terabithia
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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:
Reflected, back-scattered photons return from the target object carrying speckle noise, a random type of flaw that occurs in imagery.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2024
But instead of seeking to speckle them with familiar, Earthly worlds, we can give in to the alienation and embrace the loneliness, let it transmute into a new kind of awe.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2022
As cancellations increasingly speckle a busy fall concert calendar, the team behind Day In Day Out, Seattle’s first major music festival since the pandemic, was dealt a last-minute blow.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
It is restless and searching, continually morphing in shape, an abstract paintbrush swoosh one moment, a speckle of raindrops the next.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2020
“Please remove this woman,” said another senator, a man with broad, bullish shoulders and a speckle of sweat on his pale skin.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
This organization gives rise to unique pH profiles within nucleoli, which they measured and compared with the pH of nearby non-nucleolar condensates including nuclear speckles and Cajal bodies.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 18, 2024
Those tell-tale black, dusty speckles first colonised the windowsill, and then took over parts of the wallpaper and nearby furniture.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2024
Others showed mere speckles of damage visible among streaks of healthy, red-stained cells.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 27, 2023
While eggs from the store usually come in a choice of brown or white, with a backyard flock you can have eggshell colors in blues and greens, chocolate brown, or covered in speckles.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2022
When she looks up at him, his soft blue eyes are bright in the afternoon sunlight that shines through the windows, illuminating the speckles of sawdust in the air.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Prized vinyl records and vintage audio equipment are nothing more than a blank mush, speckled with ashes and broken pieces.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
You wait until the bananas are nearly gone — soft, speckled, with that distinct on-the-edge-of-death banana smell — and turn them into something new.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2026
When Bronner pulled up to company headquarters in his Tesla—a dragon decal along the side and a speckled mutt in the back seat—he was 30 minutes late.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Seven native rattlesnake species are in California, including the Mojave, Western diamondback, red diamond, Southern Pacific, Northern Pacific, Great Basin, and the speckled rattlesnake.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2026
The black vomit is not really black; it is a speckled liquid of two colors, black and red, a stew of tarry granules mixed with fresh red arterial blood.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
The towns speckling the Columbia River basin have long ridden the ebbs and flows of far-off markets: volatile crop prices, changes in the livestock trade, pressure on the lumber industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2025
The “white gold” they seek is contained in the hundreds of salt flats, or salares, speckling the region.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2024
Soon after European astronomers developed the first telescopes at the start of the 17th century, they observed dark spots speckling the Sun’s surface.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 9, 2022
The daughter is particularly confused about the purpose of mysterious holes speckling the family’s California backyard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2020
Rain began falling, softly at first, speckling my blouse and skirt with wet spots.
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
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.
