Motley Meaning
/ˈmɒtli/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjComprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.
adjHaving many colours; variegated.
Sentence Examples
They're a motley crew.
A motley crew of educators and students gathered at the seminar.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ group of artists included painters, musicians, and poets from different countries.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ group of tourists from all over the world gathered at the base of the Eiffel Tower to wait for the next tour.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], lines 906–907:
"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:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ group of artists included painters, musicians, and poets from different countries.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ group of tourists from all over the world gathered at the base of the Eiffel Tower to wait for the next tour.