speckle

English

Etymology

The noun is from Middle Dutch spekkel; the verb was later coined from the noun, in the late 16th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspɛkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkəl

Noun

speckle (countable and uncountable, plural speckles)

1. A small spot or speck on the skin, plumage or foliage.
2. (physics) The random distribution of light when it is scattered by a rough surface.
3. (Scotland) Kind; sort.
4. (cytology) A cluster of interchromatin granules in a nucleus.

   Synonym: splicing speckle

Derived terms

• speckled
• speckle-fronted weaver
• speckle imaging
• speckly

 

Translations

small spot

• Bulgarian: петънце (bg) n (petǎnce), луничка f (lunička)
• Finnish: pilkku (fi)
• German: Fleck (de) m, Sprenkel (de) m
• Greek: στίγμα (el) n (stígma), κηλίδα (el) f (kilída)
• Ottoman Turkish: بكك (beñek)
• Russian: пятнышко (ru) n (pjatnyško), крапинка (ru) f (krapinka)
• Turkish: benek (tr)

physics: random distribution of scattered light

• Bulgarian: разсеяна светлина f (razsejana svetlina)
• Finnish: epäkoherentti sironta

Verb

speckle (third-person singular simple present speckles, present participle speckling, simple past and past participle speckled)

1. To mark with speckles.

Translations

to mark with speckles

• Finnish: täplittää (fi)
• Russian: крапить (ru) impf (krapitʹ)