Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Molt |
MoltNoun1. Periodic shedding of the cuticle in arthropods or the outer skin in reptiles. Verb1. Cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers; of animals. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "molt" was first used: 1591. (references) |
Note: Molt \Molt\, Moult \Moult\, intransitive verb [imperfect & past participle. Moltedor Moulted; Moltingor Moulting.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In birds, moulting or '\molting' is the routine shedding of old feathers. Also, the shedding of old skin in reptiles.In arthropods, such as insects and crustaceans, molting describes the shedding of the exoskeleton, typically to allow for further growth. See ecdysis.
Moulting in birds:
Moulting in birds is a comparatively slow process, as a bird never sheds all its feathers at once; it must keep enough of its feathers to regulate its body temperature, repeal moisture, and fly. A moulting bird should never have any bald spots. If a pet bird has any bald spots, the bird should be brought to an avian veterinarian to search for possible causes for the baldness, which may include giardia, mites, or feather-plucking.
The process of moulting
1. The bird begins to shed some old feathers
2. Pin feathers grow in to replace the old feathers
3. As the pin feathers become full feathers, other feathers are shed.
This is a cyclical process that happens in many phases. In general, a moult begins at a bird's head, progresses down the body to its wings and torso, and finishes with the tail feathers.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Moult."
Synonyms: MoltSynonyms: ecdysis (n), molting (n), moulting (n), exuviate (v), moult (v), shed (v), slough (v). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: moulted (medicine). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Divestment | Verb: divest; uncover; (cover; ); denude, bare, strip; disfurnish; undress, disrobe; (dress, enrobe; ); uncoif; dismantle; put off, take off, cast off; doff; peel, pare, decorticate, excoriate, skin, scalp, flay; expose, lay open; exfoliate, molt, mew; cast the skin. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Molt |
| English words defined with "molt": Mue ♦ Pupigerous ♦ Tarrock. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "molt": First-year bird. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "molt": Mue. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Molt" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Catalan (quite, very, very much). |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Photo #6 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, sheds its shell. The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Photo #7 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, sheds its shell. The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Photo #8 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, sheds its shell. The genus and species mean tasty The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Photo #1 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, has begun the process of shedding its shell. The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Photo #2 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, sheds its shell. During its lifetime a crab may molt 20 to 25 times, increasing its size as much as 1/4 to 1/3 each time. The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Photo #3 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, sheds its shell. The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Photo #4 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, sheds its shell. The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Photo #5 of 8. Having reached the "buster" molt stage, a Maryland blue crab , Callinectes sapidus, sheds its shell. The genus and species mean tasty beautiful swimmer. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Sunka supermarket" by Núria Fortuny Commentary: ".."Sunka, un supermercat molt modern de Lleida" <br>.."Sunka is the most modern supermarket in Lleida" <br>." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Larvae feed on mice, other small mammals, deer, and birds in the late summer and early fall, molt into nymphs, and then are dormant (inactive) until the next spring. (references) | |
Nymphs feed on rodents, small mammals, birds and humans in the late spring and summer and molt into adults in the fall. In the fall and early spring, adult ticks feed and mate on large mammals (especially deer) and bite humans. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Molt" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Molt" is used about 2 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 100% | 2 | 245,945 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "molt" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Molt | Last name | 170 | 42,787 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
1. Molt, MT |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
molt | 45 |
molt mt | 2 |
crab hermit molt | 2 |
french molt | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "molt"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | Ndërroj Puplat (moult), Ndërrim I Puplave (moult). (various references) | |
Arabic | فقد شعره (moult), تساقط الريش (moult), تساقط (breakdown, collapse, drop out, fall, moult, shake, shake off), سقط شعره أو ريشه (moult), طرح ريشه (moult), طرح (deduct, excrete, fling, floor, heave, lay, moult, posit, put aside, put away, reject, squirt, subtract, subtraction, take away, throw away, toss). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | Сменяне На Перата, Сменям Си Перата. (various references) | |
Chinese | 蜕变 (Molted, molting, Moulted, Moulting). (various references) | |
French | Mue (moult). (various references) | |
German | Mausern (moult). (various references) | |
Greek | όαδώ, Τριχορροώ, Προβάλλω Τα Πτερά, Πτερορρέω. (various references) | |
Hungarian | vedlés (moult, shedding, skinning). (various references) | |
Italian | mutarsi (torn into, vary), Mutare Il Pelo (moult), Muda (moult). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oltmay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | mudar de penas (moult), perder as penas (moult), andar na muda (moult). (various references) | |
Romanian | Nãpârli (moult, Slough, slough its skin). (various references) | |
Russian | линять (bleed, exuviate, mew, moult), Линька, Линять. (various references) | |
Scottish | mult (a wedder, wether. Better molt). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | mitariti se (moult), mitariti (mew, moult), mitarenje (mew, moult), menjanje perja (moult), olinjati se (moult), linjati se (exuviate, moult), linjanje (exuviation, moult). (various references) | |
Spanish | Mudar La Pluma (moult), Mudar La Piel (moult, Slough), Mudar (alter, back, break, break up, change, convert, moult, move, mutate, shed, Slough, slough off, throw, transfer, turn, turn about, turn around, vary, veer), Muda (change, change of clothing, moult, shedding), Pelechar (moult). (various references) | |
Swedish | Rugga (moult, tease), Ömsa Skinn (Slough). (various references) | |
Turkish | Tüy Dökmek (exuviate, moult), Tüy Dökme (exuviation, molting, moult, moulting), Deri Değiştirmek (moult, shed one's skin, Slough, slough away, slough off), Deri Değiştirme (molting, moult, moulting, sloughing). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | Линяти, Линяння. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự thay lông (moult), sự rụng lông (moult). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | mutare. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "molt": molted, molten, moltenly, molter, molters, molting, molto, molts. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "molt": premolt, smolt. (additional references) | |
Words containing "molt": smolts, unmolten. (additional references) | |
| |
"Molt" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: emult, kolt, mlt, mmol, moft, mohl, moit, molet, molf, molk, Molo, molp, Molte, molti, moltz, molut, molz, mool, moola, mooli, Motl, mout, movt, mowt, mox, muilt, mulat, mulot, mult, multa, multum, Mutlu, myol, myool, nult, umlot, yolt, zolt. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "molt" (pronounced mō"lt) |
| 3 | -ō" l t | bolt, colt, Holt, jolt, revolt, volt. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "l-m-o-t" | |
-1 letter: lot, mol, mot, tom. | |
-2 letters: lo, mo, om, to. | |
| Words containing the letters "l-m-o-t" | |
+1 letter: molto, molts, motel, moult, smolt. | |
+2 letters: almost, amatol, loment, maloti, maltol, melton, merlot, molest, molted, molten, molter, mortal, mostly, motels, motile, motley, mottle, moults, omelet, smalto, smolts, stomal, telome, thymol, tombal, ultimo. | |
+3 letters: amatols, boomlet, complot, filemot, flotsam, folkmot, lomenta, loments, maillot, maltols, maltose, marplot, matelot, melilot, meltons, menthol, merlots, moistly, molests, molters, molting, monthly, moonlet, moonlit, mortals, motiles, motleys, motlier, mottled, mottler, mottles, moulted, moulter, mulatto, oatmeal, omelets, omental, optimal, premolt, smaltos, somital, stromal, telamon, telomes, telomic, temblor, thymols, timolol, tollman, tollmen, tombola, tombolo, tomfool, tremolo, trommel, tumoral, turmoil. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Names: Frequency 11. Cities 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
