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
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
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
-
Keep an eye out for tiny brown or orange specks, especially around door edges, undercarriage, and seams.—
Jenna Prestininzi,
Freep.com,
25 Mar. 2026
-
Keep an eye out for tiny brown or orange specks, especially around door edges, undercarriage and seams.—
Jenna Prestininzi,
USA Today,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Take a room full of particles, for instance, where half of the particles are cold (low in kinetic energy, moving slowly, with a long timescale in between collisions) and half of the particles are hot (high in kinetic energy, moving rapidly, with short timescales separating successive collisions).—
Big Think,
Big Think,
9 Apr. 2026
-
As free quarks cannot exist in isolation, quarks produced from the vacuum immediately combine into composite particles called hyperons.—
Chris Young,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Its design, crafted by Russell Sage Studio, is meant to be an on-the-nose reflection of the distillery's famed product, with bronzy walls the color of its single malt, and a ceiling painted to look like barley, reflecting the morning dew with flecks of gold throughout.—
Alessandra Amodio,
Travel + Leisure,
9 Apr. 2026
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Berber carpet Berber is a type of loop pile carpet with flecks of color.—
Faith Wakefield,
USA Today,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
About 80 times heavier than protons, W bosons are among the heaviest of nature’s fundamental particles, which can’t be broken down into smaller bits.—
Clara Moskowitz,
Scientific American,
10 Apr. 2026
-
There may be no documents in the libraries, but the trees hold bits and shards of this land’s collective memory.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Whole Grains Whole grains offer plenty of fiber and magnesium.—
Lana Barhum,
Verywell Health,
13 Apr. 2026
-
This is a huge immediate problem for India and other low-income nations where rice or other grains consumed directly dominate diets.—
Edward Lotterman,
Twin Cities,
12 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
What started as a personal need turned into a four-year journey to develop adhesive eye patches and, eventually, a business.—
Jordan Greene,
PEOPLE,
14 Apr. 2026
-
Common Blue Violet Those deep purple flower patches that popped up on your lawn are actually weeds.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
13 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Through a specialized molten salt treatment, the long polymer chains in polyethylene are broken down into fuel-grade molecules.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Apr. 2026
-
Much like having a cold, the subsequent congestion can then block odor molecules from reaching olfactory receptors.—
Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Every other California gubernatorial candidate is left to fight over the scraps, while voters and some political operatives have a dim view of the remaining field.—
Maxwell Adler,
Vanity Fair,
15 Apr. 2026
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Think of it like a blender—feed scraps in slowly to avoid overwhelming the system.—
Jamie Cuccinelli,
Martha Stewart,
12 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Motes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/motes. Accessed 17 Apr. 2026.
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