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moth.

Any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/mɒθ/Received-Pronunciation/mɔθ/General-American/mɑθ/cot-caught-merger

  1. Any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.

  2. Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *mat- Proto-Indo-European *-ḗn Proto-Indo-European *matḗn Proto-Germanic *maþôder. Proto-West Germanic *moþþā Old English moþþe Middle English mothe English moth From Middle English moth, moththe, motthe, moght, mohþe, mouȝte, from Old English moþþe, mohþe, mohþa, from Proto-West Germanic *moþþā, from Proto-Germanic *maþô ~ *muttaz (“insect, worm, maggot”), from Proto-Indo-European *mutn-, *mut- (“worm”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte (“moth”), Swedish mott (“moth”) and Norwegian Nynorsk mott (“moth”).

verb/mɒθ/Received-Pronunciation/mɔθ/General-American/mɑθ/cot-caught-merger

  1. To hunt for moths.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *mat- Proto-Indo-European *-ḗn Proto-Indo-European *matḗn Proto-Germanic *maþôder. Proto-West Germanic *moþþā Old English moþþe Middle English mothe English moth From Middle English moth, moththe, motthe, moght, mohþe, mouȝte, from Old English moþþe, mohþe, mohþa, from Proto-West Germanic *moþþā, from Proto-Germanic *maþô ~ *muttaz (“insect, worm, maggot”), from Proto-Indo-European *mutn-, *mut- (“worm”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte (“moth”), Swedish mott (“moth”) and Norwegian Nynorsk mott (“moth”).

noun/məʊt/Received-Pronunciation/moʊt/General-American

  1. A moth bean plant (Vigna aconitifolia).

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Hindi मोठ (moṭh); see moth bean.

noun

  1. A girlfriend.

    Ireland · slang
Where this word comes from

Alternative form of mot (“woman; wife”), likely under influence from Irish maith (“goodness”).

noun

  1. Obsolete form of mote.

    alt-of · obsolete

  2. A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.

    dated
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.