Motley
//ˈmɒtli// adj, name, noun, verb
adj, name, noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An incongruous mixture. countable, uncountable
- 2 a multicolored woolen fabric woven of mixed threads in 14th to 17th century England wordnet
- 3 A jester's multicoloured clothes. uncountable
- 4 a garment made of motley (especially a court jester's costume) wordnet
- 5 A jester; a fool. broadly, countable, figuratively
"Wil you be married, Motley?"
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- 6 a collection containing a variety of sorts of things wordnet
Verb
- 1 To give something a patchwork appearance. transitive
- 2 make motley; color with different colors wordnet
- 3 To make something multicolored, variegated, or diverse in character. broadly, figuratively, transitive
- 4 make something more diverse and varied wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.
"I met a fool i' th' forest, / A motley' fool."
- 2 Having many colours; variegated.
Adjective
- 1 having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly wordnet
- 2 consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
- 2 A city in Morrison County and Cass County, Minnesota, United States.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The park is home to a motley group of amphibians, a raft of different tree species, a dozen beehives and—grazing placidly in the distance—a flock of Brittany sheep, practicing ‘ecological management.’"
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.
Related phrases
More for "motley"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.