Definition of "mote"

mote¹

/moʊt/

noun
plural motes
1. A small particle; a speck.
  Quotations
  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.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 7:5
  What shall a Mote up to a Monarch rise?An Emmet match an Emperor in might?
  a. 1729, Edward Taylor, Meditation. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare a place for you
  I wanted to shrink myself to a mote of dust, plunge into this pool I held in my own cyclopean hands, soar down these runs of light to places where light itself was born from this colloquy of dust.
  1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 9

mote²

/moʊt/

verb
third-person singular simple present mote, no present participle, simple past and past participle must
1. (archaic) May or might.
  Quotations
  he […] kept aloofe for dread to be descryde, / Untill fit time and place he mote espy, / Where he mote worke him scath and villeny.
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
2. (obsolete) Must.
3. (archaic) Forming subjunctive expressions of wish: may.
  Quotations
  ‘I shall not take Vengeance into my own Hands. The Goddess will do what She will.’ ‘So mote it be,’ said the Grandmaster.
  1980, Erica Jong, Fanny

mote³

/moʊt/

noun
plural motes
1. (obsolete) A meeting for discussion.
2. (obsolete) A body of persons who meet for discussion, especially about the management of affairs.
3. (obsolete) A place of meeting for discussion.

mote⁴

/moʊt/

noun
plural motes
1. A tiny computer for remote sensing; a component element of smartdust.