motte

M3O1T1T1E1
/ˈmɒt/

noun

A raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch.

“Coordinate term: bailey”

OriginFrench motte ← Old French motte →
Less commonScrabble 7
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Meanings

motte1

nounmotte (plural mottes)

plural mottes

  1. A raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch.

    The motte was a mound made of earth and surrounded by a ditch.

    2013 September 13, Richard Huscroft, The Norman Conquest: A New Introduction, Routledge, →ISBN
  2. An argument which is uncontroversial and easy to defend (in the context of a motte and bailey fallacy).

    Coordinate term: bailey

    1 more example

    "Birds are dinosaurs" is the bailey; "birds are more similar to dinosaurs than anything else" is the motte.

    2023 February 10, “Why Birds Are Not Dinosaurs (And Why It Matters)”, in Answers in Genesis, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2023

motte2

nounmotte (plural mottes)

plural mottes

  1. alternativeAlternative form of mott.

Motte3

proper noun
  1. A surname.

Origin

motte · noun

  1. Old Frenchmotte“mound, hillock”
  2. Frenchmotte
  3. Englishmotte

From French motte, from Anglo-Norman/Old French motte (“mound, hillock”). Doublet of moat.

More words from French, Old French

Full word history & related roots →

motte · noun

Alternative forms.

Full word history & related roots →

Motte · proper noun

  1. Gaulish*mutt
  2. Medieval Latinmota“fortified height”
  3. Old Frenchmot, motte“embankment, hill, mound”
  4. EnglishMotte

* 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”)).

More words from Old French, Medieval Latin, Gaulish

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Czech pahorek
  • pahorekearth mound
Italian motta
  • mottaearth mound

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

totemmotettomte
Cite this entry
APA

motte. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/motte

MLA

“motte.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/motte. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “motte,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/motte.

Source: motte on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.