mole

From Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl, mǣl (“a mole, spot, mark, blemish”), 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”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊl/, /mɔʊl/
• (Estuary English) IPA^(key): /mɒʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mol/, /moʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl

mole (plural moles)

woman with a mole on her face

1. A pigmented spot on the skin, a naevus, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy.

• birthmark
• nevus, naevus, nævus

• beauty mark

From Middle English mol, molde, molle, from Old English *mol, from Proto-Germanic *mulaz, *mulhaz (“mole, salamander”), from Proto-Indo-European *molg-, *molk- (“slug, salamander”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)melw- (“to grind, crush, beat”). Cognate with North Frisian mull (“mole”), Saterland Frisian molle (“mole”), Dutch mol (“mole”), Low German Mol, Mul (“mole”), German Molch (“salamander, newt”), Old Russian смолжь (smolžʹ, “snail”), Czech mlž (“clam”).

Derivation as an abbreviation of Middle English molewarpe, a variation of moldewarpe, moldwerp (“mole”) in Middle English is unexplained and probably unlikely due to the simultaneous occurrence of both words. See mouldwarp.

• mool, moule, mowle, mold (obsolete)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊl/
• (Estuary English) IPA^(key): /mɒʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mol/, /moʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl

mole (plural moles)

a mole (animal)

a mole (excavator)

1. Any of several small, burrowing insectivores of the family Talpidae.
2. Any of the burrowing rodents also called mole rats.
3. (espionage) An internal spy, a person who involves himself or herself 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.

• mouldwarp

From moll (from Moll, an archaic nickname for Mary), influenced by the spelling of the word mole (“an internal spy”), and due to /mɒl/ and /məʊl/ merging as [moʊl] in the Australian accent.

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /moʊl/
• Rhymes: -əʊl

mole (plural moles)

1. (slang, derogatory) A moll, a bitch, a slut.

• moll

French môle or Latin mōles (“mass, heap, rock”).

the remains of a mole at Dunkirk

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mol/, /moʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl

mole (plural moles)

1. (nautical) A massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater or junction between places separated by water.[1]
   • 1847 — George A. Fisk, A pastor's memorial of the holy land

     [Alexander the Great] then conceived the stupendous idea of constructing a mole, which should at once connect [Tyre] with the main land; and this was actually accomplished by driving piles and pouring in incalculable quantities of soil and fragments of rock; and it is generally believed, partly on the authority of ancient authors, that the whole ruins of Old Tyre were absorbed in this vast enterprize, and buried in the depths of the sea [...]

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 1:

     Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land.

   • 1983 — Archibald Lyall, Arthur Norman Brangham, The companion guide to the south of France

     [about Saint-Tropez] Yachts and fishing boats fill the little square of water, which is surrounded on two sides by quays, on the third by a small ship-repairing yard and on the fourth by the mole where the fishing boats moor and the nets are spread out to dry.

2. (rare) A haven or harbour, protected with such a breakwater.
3. (historical) An Ancient Roman mausoleum.

From German Mol.

• mol (dated)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mol/, /moʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl

mole (plural moles)

1. (chemistry, physics) In the International System of Units, the base unit of amount of substance; the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities (atoms, ions, molecules, etc.) as there are atoms in 0.012 kg of carbon-12. Symbol: mol. The number of atoms is known as Avogadro’s number. [from 1897]

• gram molecule

From Latin mola.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mol/, /moʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl

mole (plural moles)

1. A hemorrhagic mass of tissue in the uterus caused by a dead ovum.

From Spanish mole, from Classical Nahuatl mōlli (“sauce; stew; something ground”).

• molé

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmoʊleɪ/, /ˈmoʊli/

mole (countable and uncountable, plural moles)

chicken in a red mole sauce, with rice on the side

1. One of several spicy sauces typical of the cuisine of Mexico and neighboring Central America, especially the sauce which contains chocolate and which is used in cooking main dishes, not desserts.[2]

• Elmo, Lomé, Melo, melo-, moel

• IPA^(key): /moːlə/, [ˈmoːlə]

mole c (singular definite molen, plural indefinite moler)

1. mole, breakwater
2. pier, jetty

mole

1. softly

• malmole

• mola (“soft”)

• IPA^(key): /mɔl/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

mole f (plural moles)

1. (chemistry, physics) mole

• “mole” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

mole f (plural moli)

1. (chemistry, physics) mole

• grammo-molecola

• millimole
• molare

• elmo, melo

mole

1. second-person singular present active imperative of molō

mōle f

1. ablative singular of mōles

mole

1. Superseded spelling of móle.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.lɛ/

mole m anim

1. inflection of mól:
   1. nominative plural
   2. accusative plural
   3. vocative plural

mole m inan

1. inflection of mol:
   1. nominative plural
   2. accusative plural
   3. vocative plural

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.lɨ/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.li/
• (South Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.le/
• Hyphenation: mo‧le

From Old Portuguese mole, from Latin mollis, mollem, earlier *molduis, from Proto-Indo-European *(h₂)moldus (“soft, weak”).

mole m or f (plural moles, comparable)

1. Not hard; smooth or flexible; soft.
2. (informal) Not difficult; easy.

• moleza
• molhar

From Latin mōles.

mole f (plural moles)

1. mass

mole m (plural moles)

1. (Portugal) Alternative form of mol

• IPA^(key): /ˈmole/

From Latin mollis; cognate with muelle.

mole (plural moles)

1. soft, mild

• muelle

From Latin moles

mole f (plural moles)

1. hunk, chunk, slab (thing of large size or quantity)
2. massiveness

From Classical Nahuatl mōlli (“sauce, something ground”).

mole m (plural moles)

1. (Mexico) mole, a type of stew.

mole

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of molar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of molar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of molar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of molar.

mole

1. fish

• Takács, Gábor (2007) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 397: “Zayse mo'le”
• Linda Jordan, A study of Shara and related Ometo speech varieties (Zergulla mòlɛ́)