as in specks
a very small piece
there's not a mote of dirt in that woman's house
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of motes
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
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for motes
Noun
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Their long, silvery-blue spiral arms are peppered with bright knots and specks, the telltale signposts of active, messy astrophysics in progress.—
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry,
Space.com,
8 Jan. 2026
-
Microcalcifications appear as white specks and may indicate cancer in some cases.—
Lindsey Leake,
NBC news,
3 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
In high-temperature molten environments, active cathode particles can dissolve into the electrolyte and migrate away from their intended sites.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
12 Jan. 2026
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Grout is very porous and, because of the indent between tiles, grout can easily collect dirt, food particles, and mold, which will discolor the grout over time.—
Daley Quinn,
Southern Living,
11 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
López reportedly found flecks of gold while digging wild onions, sparking an early gold rush.—
Don Sweeney,
Sacbee.com,
26 Dec. 2025
-
Shiny and dark evergreen foliage is held aloft on strong, arching stems mottled with purple flecks.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
21 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Beyond the gong, other bits of prop comedy give them cover to dive into more controversial topics.—
Julia Black,
Vanity Fair,
8 Jan. 2026
-
The live show — featuring a famed blue-skinned, apparently bald and mostly silent trio — will feature classic Blue Man Group routines plus new bits that will be exclusive to the Orlando production.—
Dewayne Bevil,
The Orlando Sentinel,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Duggar went on to credit her simple diet in her health journey, which includes vegetables, fruits, meat and a few grains, after speaking with a friend about their complicated nutrition habits.—
Madison E. Goldberg,
PEOPLE,
8 Jan. 2026
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Oats, grains, fruits, nuts, seeds, and dairy products are associated with healthy cholesterol.—
Caitlin Beale,
Health,
7 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Those canyons provide thousands of patches of natural habitat that interpenetrate the edges of greater Los Angeles.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
8 Jan. 2026
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Some of the new services offered in South County include electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, ambulatory monitoring patches that track heart rhythm and treadmill stress tests.—
Grace Hase,
Mercury News,
7 Jan. 2026
Noun
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By releasing messenger molecules called neurotransmitters that open and close ion channels, neurons can nudge their neighbors’ membrane potentials up or down.—
Elise Cutts,
Quanta Magazine,
12 Jan. 2026
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Participants were able to detect odorant molecules using the device, and most could reliably distinguish between different odors.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
12 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Fish guts, food scraps, and agricultural waste from Norway's coastal communities would power this first-of-its-kind journey.—
Ryan Craggs,
Travel + Leisure,
15 Jan. 2026
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The city’s colorful outdoor food markets lay abandoned—the usual smell of ripe papaya replaced by the stench of yesterday’s scraps, rotting in the heat.—
Armando Ledezma,
New Yorker,
14 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Motes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/motes. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.
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