• (GA) IPA: /moʊt/
• (RP) IPA: /məʊt/

mote (plural motes)

1. A small particle; a speck.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Matthew 7:5 ↗:

     Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

   • ante 1729 Edward Taylor, "Meditation. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare a place for you":

     What shall a Mote up to a Monarch rise?

     An Emmet match an Emperor in might?

• French: atome
• German: Stäubchen
• Italian: pagliuzza
• Portuguese: partícula
• Russian: пыли́нка
• Spanish: mota

mote (mote; past and past participle must)

1. (archaic) May or might. [from 9th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     he […] kept aloofe for dread to be descryde, / Untill fit time and place he mote espy, / Where he mote worke him scath and villeny.

2. (obsolete) Must. [9th-17th c.]
3. (archaic) Forming subjunctive expressions of wish: may. [from 9th c.]
   • 1980, Erica Jong, Fanny:

     ‘I shall not take Vengeance into my own Hands. The Goddess will do what She will.’ ‘So mote it be,’ said the Grandmaster.

mote (plural motes)

1. (obsolete) A meeting for discussion.

   a wardmote in the city of London

2. (obsolete) A body of persons who meet for discussion, especially about the management of affairs.

   a folk mote

3. (obsolete) A place of meeting for discussion.

mote (plural motes)

1. A tiny computer for remote sensing; a component element of smartdust.

1. Surname