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mote

Say the word: mote. It's short and quick, isn't it? The word corresponds to its meaning, which is something tiny: a speck of dust, a bit of fluff, a speckle of gold in the prospector's pan.

We're not sure of the origin of the word mote is not known, except that it is related to Germanic words meaning sawdust or grit, tiny dust particles. We think of a mote as the tiniest of objects, but astronomer Carl Sagan put it into a different perspective when he looked at a photograph of Earth taken from a great distance by Voyager I and said, "We live on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

DEFINITIONS OF: mote

1

n (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything

Synonyms:
atom, corpuscle, molecule, particle, speck
Types:
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grain
a relatively small granular particle of a substance
grinding
material resulting from the process of grinding
chylomicron
a microscopic particle of triglycerides produced in the intestines during digestion; in the bloodstream they release their fatty acids into the blood
flyspeck
a tiny dark speck made by the excrement of a fly
identification particle
a tiny particle of material that can be added to a product to indicate the source of manufacture
granule
a tiny grain
Microtaggant
(trademark) a microscopic and traceable identification particle used to trace explosives or other hazardous materials or to prevent counterfeiting
Type of:
material, stuff
the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object
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