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motley

Pronunciation: /ˈmɒtli/

The English word “motley” has 7 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.
  2. Having many colours; variegated.

noun

  1. An incongruous mixture.
  2. A jester's multicoloured clothes.
  3. A jester; a fool.

verb

  1. To give something a patchwork appearance.
  2. To make something multicolored, variegated, or diverse in character.

Etymology

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 are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.