Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A witty or incisive remark.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An obsolete form of mote.
- n. A word; a motto.
- n. (F. pron. mō). A saying, especially a brief and forcible or witty saying; a bon-mot.
- n. A note on the bugle, hunting-horn, or the like; also, a note in the musical notation for such instruments.
- n. An obsolete or dialectal form of moat.
- n. A mark for players at quoits.
- n. A small grove or clump of timber on a prairie, sometimes likened to an ‘island.’
- n. An ancient mechanical device used in India and other countries of the Orient for lifting water by animal power. It consists of a bucket or water-tight bag, raised by means of a rope fastened over a pulley, two bullocks or other animals being attached to the end of the rope.
Wiktionary
- n. A witty comment.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. May; must; might.
- n. A word; hence, a motto; a device.
- n. A pithy or witty saying; a witticism.
- n. A note or brief strain on a bugle.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a compulsory annual test of older motor vehicles for safety and exhaust fumes
- n. a clever remark
Etymologies
- French, from Old French, word, saying, probably from Vulgar Latin *mōttum, from Late Latin muttum, grunt, mutter, of imitative origin.
Examples
“I was reading it just as my almost 5 year old angel of a daughter shouted out a gros mot from the kitchen.”
“Nothing will ever compare with being safe in mot ...”
Saving Seeds and Growing Heirlooms...You Might Want To Think About It
“I attempt an English version of a famous bon mot from the Chinese sage Xun Zi.”
“Tis only a jeu de mot, "pronouncing the French words as broadly as possible," a _Jew d'esprit_, and 'tis only a _Jew de motte_, "for the sake of the rhyme, and his subject, the Jews.”
“The mot was a successful one, and nobody was more amused by it than the spirituelle lady of whom it was said.”
What I Remember
“Many, too, will recall his mot, spoken to a beauty standing between himself and the Duke of Wellington: “Madame, how happy should you be to find yourself placed between the two greatest men in Europe!””
The Great Italian and French Composers
“Móscôw - some AmE speakers say Móscòw mósque Islam * mósk AmE = BrE māsk face = másque ball, cf. músk mosquìto - skêeto môte eye = môat castle móthball one word motìf pattern mô -, cf. môtive reason moûe pout = moô cow môuld mouldy”
“You either have to have a written passport up here, or you must know the "mot" if challenged by the French sentries.”
“Sunday laws, temperance laws; it places marriage on the footing of simple contracts, facilitates divorce; it is constantly, in all these things and many others, repeating the "mot" ascribed to a King of”
“[* Transcriber's note: Corrected from original 'mot'.]”
Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mot’.
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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Roots
act, aer, ambul, ami, amo, anim, ann, enn, arch, rcha, rchae, archi and 139 more...
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Foreign Words
The word 'word' in other languages.
mot, woord, logos, palabra, Wort, слово, parola, 詞, kelime, zabda, slovo, ord and 9 more...
ruzuzu Mmmm. Fresh mot. Apr 13, 2011
bilby Why, who is this mot mot motting Bilibin? Apr 13, 2011
abcedertree Bilibin went on. "Ce n'est ni trahison, ni lâcheté, ni bêtise; c'est comme à Ulm..." It was as if he fell to pondering, searching for a phrase: "C'est...c'est du Mack. Nous somme mackés," he concluded, feeling that he had uttered a mot, and a fresh mot, a mot that would be repeated.
- War and Peace, Tolstoy, 2007 translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky Apr 13, 2011
chained_bear "fr. parole, watch-word." Oct 9, 2008
fearraigh n.(pronounced phonetically) Dublin slang for wife or girlfriend. Largely considered derogatory, seeing as it derives from a former slang word for 'vagina'. Dec 13, 2006