overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

motto.

A personal slogan.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɑ.toʊ/General-American/ˈmɒ.təʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɒ.to/Canada
  1. A personal slogan.

    You have to be in it to win it — that's my motto.
  2. A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.

  3. A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding principle; a maxim.

  4. A paper packet containing a sweetmeat, cracker, etc., together with a scrap of paper bearing a motto.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Italian motto (“a word, a saying”), from Latin muttum (“a mutter, a grunt”), late 16th c. Doublet of mot.

verb/ˈmɑ.toʊ/General-American/ˈmɒ.təʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɒ.to/Canada
  1. To compose mottos.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Italian motto (“a word, a saying”), from Latin muttum (“a mutter, a grunt”), late 16th c. Doublet of mot.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

motto has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

motto studiomotto workshello, motto

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.