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dapple

noun · verb · adjective

Simple meaning

An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dapuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdæpəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.

  2. A mottled marking, usually in clusters.

verb

  1. To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.

adjective

  1. Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.

Used this way, dapple is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Animal

silver dappledapple mare

Other combinations

dapple graybig dappletwo dappledapple horse

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • dapple-graynounCompound term

    Grey with a mottled pattern of darker grey markings.

  • dapple-greynounCompound term

    Grey with a mottled pattern of darker grey markings.

  • dappled-graynounCompound term

    Grey with a mottled pattern of darker grey markings.

  • dappled-greynounCompound term

    Grey with a mottled pattern of darker grey markings.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to mark or become marked with mottling or spots

mottleRarecloudfleck

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.