mote

1 of 2

noun

ˈmōt 

: a small particle : speck entry 1

… motes danced in the shafts of sunlight …

—Margaret Kennedy

mote

2 of 2

auxiliary verb

archaic

: may, might

Synonyms of mote

Noun

• speck
• particle
• fleck
• bit
• grain

Examples of mote in a Sentence

Noun

there's not a mote of dirt in that woman's house

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

But there are actual terrifying objects in space, entities operating on a scale that crush our minds and reduce our human experience to a mote of dust floating in the dark. — Phil Plait, Scientific American, 30 Oct. 2026

The exception is Jagannathan’s territorial FBI special agent Alexandra Quinn, unimpressed by Jonah’s ability to recognize a mote of Pittsburgh slag cement in Michael’s hair, or to tell a sliver of Table Mountain pine from any other sliver of pine. — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2026

After maybe 10,000 individual motes of noise that chatter like mouse clicks, the song ends with a slow, jangly fadeout. — Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 26 Oct. 2026

But director Lance Oppenheim and his DP David Bolen shot the luxe rentals of You Can See Everything with very little artificial light, on actual film, which shows every crack and dust mote. — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 23 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English mot, from Old English; akin to Middle Dutch & Frisian mot sand

Auxiliary verb

Middle English, from Old English mōtan to be allowed to — more at must

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Auxiliary Verb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for mote

• bloat
• boat
• choate
• coat
• cote
• dote
• float
• gloat
• goat
• groat
• haute
• moat

Kids Definition

mote

noun

ˈmōt

: a small particle : speck