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moth

Pronunciation: /mɒθ/

The English word “moth” has 6 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.
  2. Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.
  3. A moth bean plant (Vigna aconitifolia).
  4. A girlfriend.
  5. A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.

verb

  1. To hunt for moths.

Etymology

From Middle English moth, moththe, motthe, moght, mohþe, mouȝte, from Old English moþþe, mohþe, mohþa, from Proto-West Germanic *moþþā, from Proto-Germanic *maþô ~ *muttaz (“insect, worm, maggot”), from Proto-Indo-European *mutn-, *mut- (“worm”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.