motto

Borrowed from Italian motto (“a word, a saying”), from Latin muttum (“a mutter, a grunt”), late 16th c.. Doublet of mot.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑ.toʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒ.təʊ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒ.to/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: (General American) -ɑtoʊ, (Received Pronunciation) -ɒtəʊ

motto (plural mottos or mottoes)

1. A personal slogan.

   You have to be in it to win it — that's my motto.

2. (heraldry) A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.
   • 2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 10:

     ‘Gentlemen, I can tell you what the new queen will take as her motto. It is Bound to Obey and Serve.’

3. A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding principle; a maxim.
   • 1715 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 45. Wednesday, May 25. [1715.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:

     It was the motto of a bishop eminent for his piety and good works, ... Serve God, and be cheerful.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
       Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […] ”

4. (obsolete) A paper packet containing a sweetmeat, cracker, etc., together with a scrap of paper bearing a motto.

• See also Thesaurus:saying

motto (third-person singular simple present mottos, present participle mottoing, simple past and past participle mottoed)

1. (intransitive) To compose mottos.
   • 2003, Nineteenth Century Prose, volume 30, page 304:

     The singularity of his epigraphic strategy notwithstanding, Emerson does not draw attention to his own mottoing. One exchange suggests that his practice was a convention imposed from without.

• motto (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• moto n (less common)

• IPA^(key): [ˈmoto]
• Rhymes: -oto

motto n

1. motto
2. epigraph

• krédo

• “motto”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “motto”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

motto n (singular definite mottoet, plural indefinite mottoer)

1. motto

• “motto” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Italian motto (“a word, a saying”).

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mot‧to

motto n (plural motto's, diminutive mottootje n)

1. motto
2. (heraldry) motto

• leus, leuze
• wapenspreuk

Ultimately from Italian motto (“a word, a saying”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmotːo/, [ˈmo̞t̪ːo̞]
• Rhymes: -otːo
• Syllabification^(key): mot‧to
• Hyphenation^(key): mot‧to

motto

1. motto (sentence or a phrase with guiding principle)

   Synonym: tunnuslause

2. epigraph (literary quotation placed at the beginning of a book or other text)

   Synonym: epigrafi

3. (heraldry) motto

   Synonyms: tunnuslause, vaalilause

• “motto”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

• motot

From Latin muttum (“mutter”). Compare Catalan and French mot (“word”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔt.to/
• Rhymes: -ɔtto
• Hyphenation: mòt‧to

motto m (plural motti)

1. witty remark
2. motto, maxim
3. posy (motto inscribed inside a ring)
4. (Gallicism) word

• → English: motto
• → German: Motto

• motto in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

motto

1. Rōmaji transcription of もっと

motto

1. motto

From Italian motto.

motto n (definite singular mottoet, indefinite plural motto or mottoer, definite plural mottoa or mottoene)

1. a motto

• “motto” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Italian motto.

motto n (definite singular mottoet, indefinite plural motto, definite plural mottoa)

1. a motto

• “motto” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from Italian motto, from Latin muttum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔt.tɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔttɔ
• Syllabification: mot‧to

motto n

1. philosophy, motto, watchword, byword

   Synonyms: dewiza, credo

2. (literature) epigraph (literary quotation placed at the beginning of a text)

   Synonym: epigraf

• motto in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• motto in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Italian motto or German Motto.

motto n (plural mottouri)

1. motto

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɔtɔ]

motto n

1. motto

• “motto”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Borrowed from Italian motto, from Late Latin muttum.

• Audio:

  (file)

motto n

1. a motto

• valspråk

• motto in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• motto in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• motto in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• motto in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

• mottoo (Caura River dialect)
• moto (Cunucunuma River dialect and Brazil)

• IPA^(key): [motto]

motto

1. a kind of long earthworm or caecilian used as a sacred food during major life events and at the end of any fast, and also for fishing

• Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “mottoo”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[2], Lyon
• Costa, Isabella Coutinho, Silva, Marcelo Costa da, Rodrigues, Edmilson Magalhães (2021) “moto”, in Portal Japiim: Dicionário Ye'kwana‎^[3], Museu do Índio/FUNAI
• Hall, Katherine Lee (1988) The morphosyntax of discourse in De'kwana Carib, volumes I and II, Saint Louis, Missouri: PhD Thesis, Washington University, pages 217, 394: “moto 'earthworm' […] motto - earth worm”
• Hall, Katherine (2007) “motto”, in Mary Ritchie Key & Bernard Comrie, editors, The Intercontinental Dictionary Series‎^[4], Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, published 2021
• Guss, David M. (1989) To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 30, 133: “motto”
• Monterrey, Nalúa Rosa Silva (2012) Hombres de curiara y mujeres de conuco. Etnografía de los indigenas Ye’kwana de Venezuela, Ciudad Bolívar: Universidad Nacional Experimental de Guayana, page 36: “motto”