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Atom vs Mote - What's the difference?

atom | mote | Synonyms |

As nouns the difference between atom and mote

is that atom is the smallest medieval unit of time, equal to fifteen ninety-fourths of a second while mote is a small particle; a speck.

As a verb mote is

may or might.

atom

English

(wikipedia atom)

Alternative forms

* atomus (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (history of science) A hypothetical particle posited by Greek philosophers as an ultimate and indivisible component of matter.
  • (physics, chemistry) The smallest possible amount of matter which still retains its identity as a chemical element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Katie L. Burke
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= In the News , passage=Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:
  • A mote of dust in a sunbeam.
  • The smallest, indivisible constituent part or unit of something. (Now generally interpreted as a figurative use of the physics sense, above.)
  • * 1835 , Sir , Sir (James Clark Ross), Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …'', Volume 1 , pp.284-5
    • Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.
  • A very small amount (of something immaterial); a whit.
  • * 1873 , (Isabella Macdonald Alden) (as "Pansy"), Three People , Western Tract and Book Society (1873), page 325:
    • "I have hardly the faintest atom of hope," answered this honest, earnest man.
  • *
    • those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength
  • (mathematics) A non-zero member of a (Boolean algebra) that is not a union of any other elements.
  • (computing, programming, Lisp) An individual number or symbol, as opposed to a list. A scalar value.

    • Synonyms

    * See also * (small amount) see also .

    Related terms

    * atom smasher * atomic * atomize

    See also

    * element

    References

    * archived version of Wikipedia page "Atom (disambiguation)"

    Anagrams

    * * * * * ----

    mote

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small particle; a speck.
  • *
    • Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
  • A tiny computer for remote sensing. Also known as smartdust.
    • See also
    * floater

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) moten, from (etyl) . Related to (l).

    Verb

    (head)
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.7:
    • he […] kept aloofe for dread to be descryde, / Untill fit time and place he mote' espy, / Where he ' mote worke him scath and villeny.
  • (obsolete) Must.
  • * 1980 , (Erica Jong), Fanny :
    • ‘I shall not take Vengeance into my own Hands. The Goddess will do what She will.’ ‘So mote it be,’ said the Grandmaster.
    Usage notes
    * Generally takes an infinitive without to .

    Etymology 3

    See .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A meeting for discussion.
    • a wardmote in the city of London
  • (obsolete) A body of persons who meet for discussion, especially about the management of affairs.
    • a folkmote
  • (obsolete) A place of meeting for discussion.
    • Derived terms
    * mote bell

    Anagrams

    * ----