English Explanatory Dictionary

mole

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A naevus, a pigmented, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy spot on the skin.
noun
  1. Any of several small, burrowing, insectivorous mammals of the family Talpidae.
  2. Any of the burrowing rodents also called mole-rats.
  3. An internal spy; a person who involves themself with an enemy organisation, especially an intelligence or governmental organisation, to determine and betray its secrets from within.
  4. A kind of self-propelled excavator used to form underground drains, or to clear underground pipelines.
  5. A type of underground drain used in farm fields, in which a mole plow creates an unlined channel through clay subsoil.
verb
  1. To create a network of channels in (waterlogged soil) to improve drainage.
noun
  1. A moll, a bitch, a slut.
noun
  1. A massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater or junction between places separated by water.
  2. A haven or harbour, protected with such a breakwater.
  3. An Ancient Roman mausoleum.
noun
  1. In the International System of Units, the base unit of amount of substance; the amount of substance of a system which contains exactly 6.02214076×10²³ elementary entities (atoms, ions, molecules, etc.). Symbol: mol. The number of atoms is known as Avogadro’s number.
noun
  1. A hemorrhagic mass of tissue in the uterus caused by a dead ovum.
noun
  1. Any of several spicy sauces typical of the cuisine of Mexico and neighboring Central America countries, especially one that contains chocolate and is used in cooking main dishes, not desserts.
name
  1. A river in Surrey, England, tributary to the Thames.
  2. A river in Devon, England, tributary to the Taw.
  3. A surname.

Pronunciation

/məʊl/ /mɔʊl/ /mɒʊl/ /mol/ /moʊl/ en-us-mole.ogg /məʉl/ [ˈmɔʊɫ] /ˈmoʊleɪ/ /ˈmoʊli/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mole!.wav

Word forms

mole moles mool moule mowle mold moling moled mol molé

Etymology

From Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl (“a mole, spot, mark, blemish”), from Proto-West Germanic *mail, from Proto-Germanic *mailą (“spot, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *mel-, *melw- (“dark, dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey-, *my- (“to soil, sully”). Cognate with Scots mail (“spot, stain”), Saterland Frisian Moal (“scar”), German dialectal Meil (“spot, stain, blemish”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌻 (mail, “spot, blemish”).

Synonyms

birthmark nevus naevus nævus molewarp mouldwarp talpid moll

Related words

beauty mark

Derived words

blind as a mole Brewer's mole common mole duckmole duck mole eastern mole golden mole hairy-tailed mole hairytail mole Japanese mole marsupial mole mole-bank mole bean molecast molecatcher molecatching mole crab Mole Creek mole cricket mole-eyed molehead moleheap molehill * molehunt molehunter moleish molelike moleomancy mole plough moleproof mole-rat * Mole River mole run mole salamander mole shrew * moleskin moletrap Père David's mole rat-mole rat mole Sado mole sand mole shrew mole * star-nosed mole Temminck's mole terms derived from mole Tokuda's mole Tyrrhenian mole water mole watermole whack-a-mole atto-mole attomole centimole decimole femtomole kilomole micromole mmole molal
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