motley.
Comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.
Meaning & usage
Comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.
Having many colours; variegated.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English motle, from Anglo-Norman motteley (“parti-colored”), from Old English mot (“speck”). Doublet of mote. The English word can be analysed as mottle + -y.
An incongruous mixture.
A jester's multicoloured clothes.
A jester; a fool.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English motle, from Anglo-Norman motteley (“parti-colored”), from Old English mot (“speck”). Doublet of mote. The English word can be analysed as mottle + -y.
To give something a patchwork appearance.
To make something multicolored, variegated, or diverse in character.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English motle, from Anglo-Norman motteley (“parti-colored”), from Old English mot (“speck”). Doublet of mote. The English word can be analysed as mottle + -y.
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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.