as in specks
a very small piece
there's not a mote of dirt in that woman's house
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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
-
As in Kourliandski’s quartet, specks and splatters of sound are interspersed with silences.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
18 May 2026
-
Their faces lost distinction, their bodies smaller and smaller and then only specks in the overvoid.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
18 May 2026
Noun
-
As dust floats through the air, static electricity can attract particles of dirt, pollen, pet dander, and dust that accumulate on the fan blades over time.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
14 May 2026
-
Similar to how cosmic impacts can agitate and heat lunar regolith to liberate trapped particles from the solar wind, machines can do much the same.—
Robin George Andrews,
Scientific American,
14 May 2026
Noun
-
The person who seems least surprised by it all is Matsuzawa, perhaps the league’s only 27-year-old rookie with flecks of gray in his hair.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
15 May 2026
-
Powerful new lasers and x-rays are enabling geologists like Korolev, a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, to probe increasingly small flecks of minerals in deep diamonds.—
James Dinneen,
Scientific American,
14 May 2026
Noun
-
In between shout-outs from the crowd, Colbert played it straight, rattling off jokes about the day’s headlines, revealing one last First Draft, and sharing shrewd bits of history about The Ed Sullivan Theater.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
22 May 2026
-
Big shot guests popped up in the studio audience, including the actors Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, and Ryan Reynolds, who did a few bits and pattered about the host going off air; Colbert moved through the usual jokes about the day’s news.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
22 May 2026
Noun
-
In the last 52 weeks, according to new NielsenIQ data, the only pasta made with alternative grains that is seeing an increase in year over year sales is ‘Grain and Legume’–a segment which has more than doubled in the past three years.—
Andrew Watman,
Forbes.com,
18 May 2026
-
Some nitazenes are so powerful that under 2 milligrams—the equivalent of a few grains of sand—can kill a person by shutting down breathing.—
The Week US,
TheWeek,
18 May 2026
Noun
-
Muted guitars twirl in curlicued shapes, fleshed out by harp, woodwinds, and brass; clanking bells and mbira-like harmonics flare up in quiet patches, and background vocals fan across the stereo field.—
Philip Sherburne,
Pitchfork,
19 May 2026
-
The dog, who is gray with white patches, was stuck in the space for two days, according to News Channel 5 Nashville.—
Madison E. Goldberg,
PEOPLE,
19 May 2026
Noun
-
Manipulations include everything from surgically removing key tissues to implanting beads soaked with signaling molecules to injecting DNA into cells to instruct them to make a different set of proteins.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
20 May 2026
-
The quantum engineering of new molecules could lead to better drugs and to batteries that don’t use costly, environmentally damaging commodities such as rare earth elements.—
Zeeya Merali,
Scientific American,
19 May 2026
Noun
-
Just scrape off large food scraps and let the dishwasher clean the rest.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
19 May 2026
-
The wastepaper baskets were filled with real scraps of newspaper.—
Andreas Wiseman,
Deadline,
17 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Motes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/motes. Accessed 25 May. 2026.
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