motley crew
/ˌmɒtli ˈkɹuː/
"motley-crew" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“motley crew” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A group of people of mixed background, especially one with a common goal.
Corpus desk
Index EN-motley-crew · motley crew · English
motley crew · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | motley crew |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌmɒtli ˈkɹuː/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “motley crew” in English
Rare enough to double-check
motley crew is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌmɒtli ˈkɹuː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A group of people of mixed background, especially one with a common goal.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for motley crew, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From motley + crew. Originally used to refer to the crews of 17th- and 18th-century ships, which contained men of many different nationalities. The correct English form is motley crew, spelled M-O-T-L-E-Y- -C-R-E-W.
Definition
- 1A group of people of mixed background, especially one with a common goal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how motley crew appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Away they marched from the rocky region and miserable village where they were posted, a motley crew of Christians and Infidels, Catholics, Greeks, and adorers of the Prophet, all mingled together, to go and attack the holy city, and compel the governor to come to their terms, and supply them with provisions.
The honest Indian scorns all these schemes, and is never found among the motley crew of Indian doctors. It is made up not of genuine Indians, but of negroes, mulattoes, and, meanest of all, some white men, who have stolen the Indian livery for their own unhallowed purposes.
Etymology
From motley + crew. Originally used to refer to the crews of 17th- and 18th-century ships, which contained men of many different nationalities.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.