Other forms: moths
A moth is a night-flying insect drawn to lights. A moth at the window, moths in the wardrobe, moth holes.
The attraction to light is probably a navigation error: they hold a fixed angle to a distant light like the moon, and a nearby bulb turns that rule into a spiral. It is the caterpillars rather than the adults that eat wool. Moths vastly outnumber butterflies.
1nounmothA night-flying insect related to butterflies.
“A moth flew around the lamp, bumping against the glass.”
moth is an insect.
Old English moththe names the insect, from a Germanic root. It first meant the clothes-eating grub.
Old English
moþþe
Middle English
mothe
English, today
moth
From Middle English mothe, from Old English moþþe. From Middle English moth,moththe,motthe,moght,mohþe,mouȝte, from Old English moþþe,mohþe,mohþa, from Proto-West Germanic moþþā, from Proto-Germanic maþô ~ muttaz (“insect, worm, maggot”), from Proto-Indo-European mutn-,mut- (“worm”). Cognate with stq Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte (“moth”), Swedish mott (“moth”) and Norwegian Nynorsk mott* (“moth”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA