as in specks
a very small piece
there's not a mote of dirt in that woman's house
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of motes
Tiny bugs float in the sun like dust motes, and there are graceful flies large enough to require a runway landing.
—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
4 May 2026
Sunbeams through the windows illuminate floating dust motes—and, imperceptibly, microdroplets of mucus carrying the measles virus, expelled from an infected but asymptomatic child who is hopping and laughing among the others.
—
Elizabeth Bruenig,
The Atlantic,
12 Feb. 2026
Easily swept up by wind and carried long distances by water, these tiny motes are also exceedingly difficult to detect and almost impossible to remove from the environment.
—
K. R. Callaway,
Scientific American,
22 Jan. 2026
There’s a Gambit-adjacent one that has players depositing motes while killing other teams.
—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
30 Aug. 2025
The sensors’ small size allows seamless integration into almost any environment, while the wireless, modular design lets motes be added or removed as needed depending on the application.
—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Aug. 2025
Powering and recording signals from multiple motes will require new techniques and better signal processing.
—
Eliza Strickland,
IEEE Spectrum,
21 Oct. 2016
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
4 May 2026
Sunbeams through the windows illuminate floating dust motes—and, imperceptibly, microdroplets of mucus carrying the measles virus, expelled from an infected but asymptomatic child who is hopping and laughing among the others.
—
Elizabeth Bruenig,
The Atlantic,
12 Feb. 2026
Easily swept up by wind and carried long distances by water, these tiny motes are also exceedingly difficult to detect and almost impossible to remove from the environment.
—
K. R. Callaway,
Scientific American,
22 Jan. 2026
There’s a Gambit-adjacent one that has players depositing motes while killing other teams.
—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
30 Aug. 2025
The sensors’ small size allows seamless integration into almost any environment, while the wireless, modular design lets motes be added or removed as needed depending on the application.
—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Aug. 2025
Powering and recording signals from multiple motes will require new techniques and better signal processing.
—
Eliza Strickland,
IEEE Spectrum,
21 Oct. 2016
Recent Examples of Synonyms for motes
Noun
-
One released a chaff cascade—hell’s own monsoon manifesting as specks of light, sound, and EM pulses falling through the hanging garden.
-
Kansas City isn't much of a pedestrian city, but now, blue and green specks of fans dot the sidewalks, like wildflowers poking through a crack in the pavement.
Noun
-
It should be finely milled, meaning it's blended to lightweight particles that move easily yet set the skin well.
-
The storm built until the walls and floor were covered with pale gray particles, billowing like smoke, then tessellating in triangles.
Noun
-
Light streams through the frosted glass, catching flecks of dust.
-
But flecks of green were visible throughout the stadium as Algeria fans made their presence known as well.
Noun
-
Screwdriver bits attach to the tool with a magnet, and the Vulyx itself can magnetically stick to any metallic surface.
-
The Ed Sullivan Theater, which first opened in 1927, is a 13-story shadow box preserving bits from a rich history of pop culture pinnacles past.
Noun
-
The distillery gained a reputation for producing all its own distillate, with grains sourced from farmers in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin.
-
The recreational use of bigger display fireworks, such as salutes that contain two grains – 130 milligrams – of explosive materials and professional-grade aerial shells with more than 60 grams of pyrotechnic compositions isn't allowed.
Noun
-
Are manufacturers producing vehicles that need regular software patches?
-
The players would sit in chairs on the side of a training pitch while staffers outfitted them with a pack around their abdomen and patches on their head.
Noun
-
This allowed small molecules and ions to diffuse into and out of the SpudCell.
-
Others, like Otto, try to build cells with molecules that differ from those found in Earth biology.
Noun
-
Bearden showed people a how to see African American life through paper scraps.
-
Jan Paul van Hecke of the Netherlands has been involved in two scraps already, the latest when he was hit while going for a header and crumbled, perhaps exaggerating a tad, after Morocco's Azzedine Ounahi challenged the header, as well.
Cite this Entry
“Motes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/motes. Accessed 3 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
