motley

CEFRC1

/ˈmɒtli/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
adjective
Made up of many different types, colors, or people.
02
adjective
Extra detail
An incongruous mixture.

Examples

A motley crew of educators and students gathered at the seminar.
They're a motley crew.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

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

noun

Extra meaning

A jester's multicoloured clothes.

More examples

In context

I met a fool i' th' forest, / A motley' fool.
Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there, / And made myself a motley to the view, […]
Wil you be married, Motley?

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank group of artists included painters, musicians, and poets from different countries.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

I met a fool i' th' forest, / A motley' fool.
c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
"One of them can see you, and one of them can see an empty hallway." Reynders narrowed her bleary eyes — she wasn't wearing her glasses, for some reason — as though momentarily uncertain which sight she was seeing. She apparently decided in favour of their motley group. "I'm the one who can see you. The one who can see you can talk to you. The one who can't talk to you can see you too, sometimes, but she doesn't want to because she knows you're not there. Where she is."
2023 September 24, HarryBlank, “Working Wonders”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 25 May 2024
Wil you be married, Motley?
c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 198, column 2, line 71
Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there, / And made myself a motley to the view, […]
1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 110”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

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Origin

adjective

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.

Deep Dive

adjective

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

The blank— group of artists included painters, musicians, and poets from different countries.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

The blank group of artists included painters, musicians, and poets from different countries.