motto
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈmɒ.təʊ//
- United States//ˈmɑ.toʊ//
- Canada//ˈmɒ.to//
A personal slogan.
noun
- 1
A personal slogan.
You have to be in it to win it — that's my motto.
- 2
A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.
‘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.
It was the motto of a bishop eminent for his piety and good works, ... Serve God, and be cheerful.
“[…] 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
obsoleteA paper packet containing a sweetmeat, cracker, etc., together with a scrap of paper bearing a motto.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian motto (“a word, a saying”), from Latin muttum (“a mutter, a grunt”), late 16th c. Doublet of mot.
verb
- 1
To compose mottos.
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.
Forms
- plural
- mottos, mottoes
- past tense
- mottoed
- past participle
- mottoed
- present participle
- mottoing
- third person singular
- mottos