# mother vs motley

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### mother
*noun · IPA /ˈmʌð.ə/ · frequency rank #576*
A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, or fostered).

### motley
*adjective · IPA /ˈmɒtli/ · frequency rank #25,849*
Comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mother-vs-motley