MOTES Synonyms: 99 Similar and Opposite Words

motes

noun

plural of mote

as in specks

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

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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

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.

— Jeff Spry, Space.com, 26 June 2026
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.

— Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 June 2026

Definition of specks

Noun

The potential arrival of a coronal mass ejection — a cloud of magnetic fields and charged particles from the sun — may make for a stronger display overnight on Saturday, July 11, through Sunday, July 12.

— Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 10 July 2026
This mixture is pushed through an extruder to form tiny, sprinkle-like cylinders, which are then tumbled in a rapidly spinning chamber to round them into near-spherical particles.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 10 July 2026

Definition of particles

Noun

Unlike previous studies, which examined bits of hair and bone fragments in wolf scat to determine what the animals ate, the UC Davis researchers used DNA analysis to determine the makeup of the samples.

— Sharon Bernstein, Sacbee.com, 8 July 2026
But as memory makers try to build higher stacks to pack in more bits and bandwidth, experts worry this high bandwidth-memory (HBM) will trap enough heat to cook itself into oblivion.

— IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Spectrum, 8 July 2026

Definition of bits

Noun

The main studio is Room 1, and all the contestants start there, competing to accurately count the grains in a bag of rice.

— Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 14 July 2026
Deeper in the clouds, more dust blocks more radiation, temperatures drop, and water and carbon dioxide ices coat the dust grains, along with molecules of increasing complexity.

— Damien Pine, Scientific American, 13 July 2026

Definition of grains

Noun

Instead of every company independently reinventing networking stacks and security patches, that work gets pooled and shared across the whole ecosystem.

— Rajesh Subramaniam, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026
Jersey patches have only recently become the norm across college athletics.

— Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 8 July 2026

Definition of patches

Noun

Harmful molecules called free radicals show up, certain enzymes start breaking down collagen and the immune system is activated.

— Leslie Baumann, Miami Herald, 9 July 2026
These are ultra-thin layers composed of large organic molecules that spontaneously organize into a neat single-molecule sheet.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 9 July 2026

Definition of molecules

Noun

Ethiopian content creator Kalu Putik has grabbed the attention of the fashion world with his outfits made from old clothes, shoes, and garbage scraps.

— Jenny Vaughan, semafor.com, 13 July 2026
On one wall, the researchers spied what first appeared to be patches of dirt or debris on a mural; further scrutiny showed these were actually thin scraps of plaster that were inscribed with strange markings.

— Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 13 July 2026

Definition of scraps

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motels

motes

motet

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“Motes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/motes. Accessed 16 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of motes

noun

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