motes

noun

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for motes
  1. specks
  2. particles
  3. flecks
  4. bits
  5. grains
  6. patches
  7. molecules
  8. scraps
Noun
  • Six months later, there was hope of reconciliation as sovereignty talks opened between the governments over the specks in the ocean that had been part of the British Empire for more than a century.
    — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 July 2026
  • Bellinger, once a babyface, now sports some light specks of gray.
    — Johnny Flores Jr, New York Times, 15 July 2026
Definition of specks
Noun
  • Storm clouds forming around the smoke in the atmosphere could create dirty rain, but it is more commonly formed with larger particles compared to the smoke’s fine particulate matter.
    — Nicole Pilsbury, Baltimore Sun, 17 July 2026
  • Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in which two or more particles become connected.
    — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 17 July 2026
Definition of particles
Noun
  • Light streams through the frosted glass, catching flecks of dust.
    — Ashley Andreou, STAT, 22 June 2026
  • But flecks of green were visible throughout the stadium as Algeria fans made their presence known as well.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 17 June 2026
Definition of flecks
Noun
  • Through Taylor-Joy’s character, the series reminds us to face ourselves, even the broken and painful bits that feel shameful.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 15 July 2026
  • What otherwise might have been worthless bits of trash commanded the highest bids due to where the two items were 57 years ago—lifting off aboard NASA’s Apollo 11 spacecraft on humanity’s first mission to land astronauts on the Moon.
    — Robert Pearlman, ArsTechnica, 15 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
  • Right on the heels of Microsoft releasing a record number of security patches, a researcher has published exploit code that can enable low-privilege Windows accounts to make sensitive changes to administrator accounts.
    — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 15 July 2026
  • Last month, the Food and Drug Administration proposed easing prescribing limits on testosterone gels, pills, patches and injections.
    — Konstantin Toropin, Fortune, 15 July 2026
Definition of patches
Noun
  • One venomous species may produce hundreds of distinct molecules, each assigned to different biological dirty work.
    — Steve Midway, STAT, 16 July 2026
  • Any molecules, including ammonia, methane, and water, would also stay in the atmosphere.
    — John Timmer, ArsTechnica, 16 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

Browse Nearby Words

motels
motes
motet
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Cite this Entry

“Motes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/motes. Accessed 19 Jul. 2026.

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