motto
/ˈmɒ.təʊ//ˈmɑ.toʊ/
motto noun: a personal slogan.
Noun
motto (plural mottos or mottoes)
- A personal slogan.
- You have to be in it to win it — that's my motto.
- A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.
- ‘Gentlemen, I can tell you what the new queen will take as her motto. It is Bound to Obey and Serve.’2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 10
- Synonyms:
- device
- A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding principle; a maxim.
- It was the motto of a bishop eminent for his piety and good works, ... Serve God, and be cheerful.1715 June 4 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 45. Tuesday, May 25. [1715.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob...
- “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC
- A paper packet containing a sweetmeat, cracker, etc., together with a scrap of paper bearing a motto.
Verb
motto (third-person singular simple present mottos, present participle mottoing, simple past and past participle mottoed)
- To compose mottos.
- The singularity of his epigraphic strategy notwithstanding, Emerson does not draw attention to his own mottoing. One exchange suggests that his practice was a convention imposed from without.2003, Nineteenth Century Prose, volume 30, page 304
motto meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
motto in Hindi
- sentence, phrase or word forming part of a heraldic achievement
- ध्येयवाक्य dhyeyvākya, सिद्धांत siddhānt, नीतिवाक्य nītivākya
motto in Tamil
- sentence, phrase or word forming part of a heraldic achievement
- குறிக்கோளுரை kuṟikkōḷurai
motto in Marathi
- बोधवाक्य, बोधवाक्यास
motto in Urdu
- sentence, phrase or word forming part of a heraldic achievement
- شِعار śi'ār
More languagesFewer languages
- motto in Bengali
- নীতিবাক্য nitibakko
- motto in Telugu
- ధ్యేయవాక్యం
- motto in Malayalam
- മുദ്രാവാക്യം, പ്രമാണസൂക്തം, ലക്ഷ്യം
- motto in Kannada
- ಸೂಕ್ತಿ, ಒಳ್ನುಡಿ, ಯುಕ್ತ ವಚನ, ಆದರ್ಶಸೂತ್ರ
- motto in Gujarati
- ધ્યેયવાક્ય
- motto in Odia
- ନୀତିବାକ୍ଯ଼
- motto in Pashto
- شعار šo'ār
- motto in Tagalog
- kasabihan, bansag, lema, moto
- motto in Arabic
- شِعَار šiʕār
- motto in Malay
- slogan, cogan kata, moto
- motto in Indonesian
- semboyan
- motto in Thai
- คำขวัญ kam-kwǎn, คติ ká-dtì, คติพจน์
- motto in Vietnamese
- tiêu ngữ
- motto in Myanmar
- ဆောင်ပုဒ် hcaungpud
Examples of motto in a sentence
- “Still, live and let live, that's my motto.” Dylan very much doubted that.
- Springfield's esquivalience in formulating a motto for his town via a well-known speech was disappointing.
- That's not a bad motto for police work overall, he thought.
Synonyms of motto
Forms of motto
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mottos |
| plural | mottoes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | mottos |
| present participle | mottoing |
| past participle | mottoed |
| past | mottoed |
Origin of motto
Borrowed from Italian motto (“a word, a saying”), from Latin muttum (“a mutter, a grunt”), late 16th c. Doublet of mot.
Words formed from motto
Questions about motto
- What does motto mean?
- Motto means a personal slogan.
- What is motto in Hindi?
- Motto in Hindi is ध्येयवाक्य (dhyeyvākya), सिद्धांत (siddhānt), नीतिवाक्य (nītivākya). See Motto meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is motto?
- Motto can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce motto?
- Motto is pronounced /ˈmɑ.toʊ/ (US).
- What is the plural of motto?
- The plural of motto is mottos.
Words near motto in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: motto (page history and authors); motto (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motto (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motto (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motto (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motto (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); motto (Odia, 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-motto.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-motto.wav.
Cite this entry: “motto.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/motto. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.