Motte
"motte" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Motte” is uncommon English (frequency #53,119 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,119
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A surname.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Motte |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #53,119 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Motte” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Motte is uncommon English at frequency #53,119 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A surname.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Motte, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: * As a French, Walloon, and West Flemish surname, from Old French mot, motte (“embankment, hill, mound”), from Medieval Latin mota (“fortified height”), which could be of Celtic origin and from Gaulish *mutt, *mutta (compare Welsh mwd (“vault, arch, canopy”… The correct English form is Motte, spelled M-O-T-T-E.
Definition
- 1A surname.
Etymology
* As a French, Walloon, and West Flemish surname, from Old French mot, motte (“embankment, hill, mound”), from Medieval Latin mota (“fortified height”), which could be of Celtic origin and from Gaulish *mutt, *mutta (compare Welsh mwd (“vault, arch, canopy”), Irish móta (“moat”), though this itself could have been borrowed from the English) or otherwise of Germanic origin and from the root of mud. Compare Delamotte, Demotte, Lamotte. * As an English surname, variant of Mott. * As a German surname, perhaps from Motten in Bavaria, first attested 837, from the personal name Moto (compare *mōd (“courage, bravery”)).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Motte”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-T-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.