Hey Dictionary

What does “motley” mean?

motley

Oh, this is a cool word —

"Motley" means a mix of very different things or people, often in a way that feels a bit random or messy. Like, nothing really matches!

The original meaning was about clothes with lots of different colors all mixed together — think of a court jester wearing a wild, colorful costume. That's "motley."

Now we mostly use it to describe a group of very different people. Like if your friend says, "We had a motley crew working on the project" — they mean the team was made up of all kinds of random, very different people. You might also hear, "It was a motley collection of old furniture" — meaning nothing matched and it all looked thrown together.

So basically — motley = a mix of very different, mismatched things or people. 🎨

Related words

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