Word.ws English Dictionary

motley

Syllables: mot·ley/ˈmɒtli/US/ˈmɑtli/

motley adjective: comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.

Adjective

motley (comparative more motley or motlier or motleyer, superlative most motley or motliest or motleyest)

  1. Comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.
    • 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...
    • 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...1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  2. Having many colours; variegated.
    Synonyms:
    colorful, prismatic, variegated, aurora-colored (US) / aurora-coloured, colorful (US) / colourful, colorific, discolored [⇒ thesaurus] (US, obsolete) / discoloured, kaleidoscopic, many-coloured

Noun

motley (countable and uncountable, plural motleys)

  1. An incongruous mixture.
  2. (uncountable) A jester's multicoloured clothes.
  3. (broadly, countable, figuratively) A jester; a fool.
    • 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...
    • 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

Verb

motley (third-person singular simple present motleys, present participle motleying, simple past and past participle motleyed)

  1. (transitive) To give something a patchwork appearance.
  2. (broadly, figuratively, transitive) To make something multicolored, variegated, or diverse in character.

Proper noun capitalized: Motley

Motley (plural Motleys)

  1. A surname.
  2. A city in Morrison County and Cass County, Minnesota, United States.

motley meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

motley in Hindi

मोटली, मोटले, मोटलाइंग

motley in Tamil

மோட்லி, மோட்ட்லி, மோட்டலி

motley in Marathi

मोटली, मोटले, मोट्ली

motley in Urdu

بوقلمون, پچ میل, پچ رنگ, رنگا رنگ
More languagesFewer languages
motley in Bengali
মোটলি, মটলি, মোটেলি
motley in Telugu
మోట్లీ, మోట్లి, మొట్లింగ్
motley in Malayalam
നാനാവർണ്ണങ്ങളുളള, വർണ്ണക്കലർപ്പ്, സബളവർണ്ണമായ
motley in Kannada
ಬಣ್ಣಬಣ್ಣದ, ಬಗೆಬಗೆ ಬಣ್ಣದ, ಬಣ್ಣಬಣ್ಣದ ಪಂಚರಂಗಿ, ನಾನಾ ಲಕ್ಷಣದ
motley in Punjabi
ਮੋਟਲੀ, ਮੋਟਲੇ, ਮੋਟਲਿੰਗ
motley in Gujarati
મોટલી, મોટલે, મોટ્લી
motley in Odia
ମୋଟଲି, ମୋଟ୍ଲି, ମୋଟଲୀ
motley in Sanskrit
सार sāra
motley in Nepali
मोटली, मोटले, मोट्ली
motley in Persian
آمیخته, رنگارنگ rangârang, ناهمگون nâhamgun

Synonyms of motley

29 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of motley

Forms of motley

Adjective
comparativemore motley
comparativemotlier
comparativemotleyer
superlativemost motley
superlativemotliest
superlativemotleyest
Noun
pluralmotleys
Verb
third-person singular presentmotleys
present participlemotleying
past participlemotleyed
pastmotleyed
Proper noun
pluralMotleys

Origin of motley

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.

Words formed from motley

Phrases with motley

Questions about motley

What does motley mean?
Motley means comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.
What is motley in Hindi?
Motley in Hindi is मोटली, मोटले, मोटलाइंग. See Motley meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is motley?
Motley can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce motley?
Motley is pronounced /ˈmɒtli/ (UK).

Words near motley in the dictionary

  1. motivos
  2. motixafortide
  3. Motl
  4. Motlav
  5. Motles
  6. motley
  7. Motley County
  8. motley crew
  9. motley crews
  10. motley fool
  11. motley fools

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: motley (page history and authors); Motley (page history and authors); motley (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motley (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motley (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motley (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motley (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motley (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motley (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motley (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motley (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motley (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motley (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); सार (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); motley (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-motley.wav.

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