Moat or mote?
moat is a noun meaning “A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a…”; mote is a noun meaning “A small particle; a speck”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) moat is about 3.1 times as common as mote.
What is the difference between moat and mote?
| moat | mote | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation A characteristic of a business that enhances its resilience against competitive pressures, arising from the inherent nature of its products, services, brand… To surround with a moat | A small particle; a speck A tiny computer for remote sensing; a component element of smartdust |
| Example | none recorded | a wardmote in the city of London |
| Forms | moats | motes |
| Pronunciation | /məʊt/ /moʊt/ | /moʊt/ /məʊt/ |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: moat and mote in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of moat and mote
moat
- 1
A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation
- 2
To surround with a moat
- 3
A characteristic of a business that enhances its resilience against competitive pressures, arising from the inherent nature of its products, services, brand, or other structural advantages
- 4
A circular lowland between a resurgent dome and the walls of the caldera surrounding it
- 5
A clear ring outside the eyewall of a tropical cyclone
mote
- 1
A small particle; a speck
- 2
A tiny computer for remote sensing; a component element of smartdust
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, moat or mote?
moat appears 1.3 times per million words; mote about once in every 2 million words.
moat 1.3 times per million wordsmote about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search moat vs mote?
“moat vs mote” is searched about 50 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“mote vs moat”, “moat or mote”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.