Word.ws English Dictionary

moth

/mɒθ//mɔθ/

moth noun: any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae. Also the obsolete form of mote.

moth: any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of...
Image: Birgit E. Rhode, Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

moth (plural moths)

  1. Any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.
    • Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7
  2. (figuratively) Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.

Verb

moth (third-person singular simple present moths, present participle mothing, simple past and past participle mothed)

  1. (intransitive) To hunt for moths.

Noun (2)

UK/məʊt/US/moʊt/

moth (countable and uncountable, plural moths)

  1. A moth bean plant (Vigna aconitifolia).
    Synonyms:
    Turkish gram, mat bean, matki

Noun (3)

moth (plural moths)

  1. (Ireland, slang) A girlfriend.

Noun (4)

moth (plural moths)

  1. (dated) A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.
    • To remove moth patches, wash the spots with a solution of common bicarbonate of soda and water several times a day, until the patches are removed, which will usually be in forty-eight hours.1895, Good Housekeeping, page 196, ISSN: 0731-3462
    • Craves for sour things, chalks and eggs, fatty people with light brown spots on the face or liver spots, moth patches on forehead and cheek.1999, R. L. Gupta, Directory of Diseases & Cures: In Homoeopathy, →ISBN, page 254

Also used as

moth is also the obsolete form of mote.

moth meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

moth in Hindi

insect similar to a butterfly
पतंगा pataṅgā, परवाना parvānā

moth in Tamil

அந்துப்பூச்சி

moth in Marathi

मॉथ

moth in Urdu

insect similar to a butterfly
پتنگا patangā, پروانہ parvāna
More languagesFewer languages
moth in Bengali
মথ
moth in Telugu
చిమ్మట
moth in Malayalam
മോത്ത്
moth in Kannada
ಚಿಟ್ಟೆ ciṭṭe
moth in Punjabi
ਪਤੰਗਾ pataṅgā, ਪਰਵਾਨਾ parvānā
moth in Gujarati
મોથ, શલભ
moth in Odia
ପତଙ୍ଗ
moth in Sinhala
සලඹයා salaᵐbayā
moth in Nepali
मोथ
moth in Tagalog
gamugamo
moth in Arabic
عُثَّة ʕuṯṯa
moth in Malay
kupu-kupu
moth in Indonesian
ngengat, gegat
moth in Persian
بید bid, مته mete, پروانه parvâne
moth in Thai
ผีเสื้อกลางคืน pǐi-sʉ̂ʉa-glaang-kʉʉn
moth in Vietnamese
ngài, bướm đêm

Examples of moth in a sentence

  • The palpi of moths in the genus Thumatha are porrect and slender.
  • Most tiger moths have broad, striped (hence the name) or spotted wings.
  • The caterpillars of the rice moth feed on dry plantstuffs such as seeds.

All 40 example sentences with moth

Synonyms of moth

Forms of moth

Noun
pluralmoths
Verb
third-person singular presentmoths
present participlemothing
past participlemothed
pastmothed

Plural of moth: moths

Origin of moth

From Middle English moth, moththe, motthe, moght, mohþe, mouȝte, from Old English moþþe, mohþe, mohþa, from Proto-West Germanic *moþþā, from Proto-Germanic *maþô ~ *muttaz (“insect, worm, maggot”), from Proto-Indo-European *mutn-, *mut- (“worm”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte (“moth”), Swedish mott (“moth”) and Norwegian Nynorsk mott (“moth”).

From Hindi मोठ (moṭh); see moth bean.

Alternative form of mot (“woman; wife”), likely under influence from Irish maith (“goodness”).

Words formed from moth

Phrases with moth

180 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with moth

Questions about moth

What does moth mean?
Moth means any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.
What is moth in Hindi?
Moth in Hindi is पतंगा (pataṅgā), परवाना (parvānā). See Moth meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is moth?
Moth can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce moth?
Moth is pronounced /mɒθ/ (UK).
What is the plural of moth?
The plural of moth is moths.

Words near moth in the dictionary

  1. motettists
  2. motetts
  3. Moteuczoma
  4. motexafin
  5. motey
  6. moth
  7. moth ball
  8. moth balls
  9. moth bean
  10. moth beans
  11. moth butterflies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: moth (page history and authors); moth (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); moth (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); moth (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); moth (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); moth (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); moth (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); moth (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); moth (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-UK-moth.oga, en-us-moth.ogg.

Cite this entry: “moth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/moth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.