SPOTTED

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does spotted mean? 

• SPOTTED (adjective)
  The adjective SPOTTED has 1 sense:

1. having spots or patches (small areas of contrasting color or texture)

  Familiarity information: SPOTTED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPOTTED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having spots or patches (small areas of contrasting color or texture)

Synonyms:

patched; spotted; spotty

Context example:

a black-and-white spotted cow

Similar:

patterned (having patterns (especially colorful patterns))

 Context examples 

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted an eruption of dust around a young star, possibly the result of a smashup between large asteroids.

(Spitzer Telescope Witnesses Asteroid Smashup, NASA)

Asteroid 2016 HO3 was first spotted on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii.

(Small Asteroid Is Earth's Constant Companion, NASA)

Astronomers first spotted bright star clusters in both Sharpless 2-54 and the Eagle Nebula, later identifying the vast, comparatively faint gas clouds swaddling the clusters.

(VST Captures Three-In-One, ESO)

I do not know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which she used.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Visible Martian aurorae seemed possible after the SPICAM imaging instrument on-board the ESA satellite Mars Express spotted aurorae from space in 2005.

(Blue Aurorae in Mars’ Sky Visible to the Naked Eye, NASA)

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted the light of a massive galaxy seen only 970 million years after the Big Bang.

(ALMA spots most distant dusty galaxy hidden in plain sight, National Science Foundation)

The nearly-complete fossil, which researchers have named Ambopteryx longibranchium, was spotted in 2017, lying in a rock formation dating back 163 million years.

(Second Bat-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Astronomers have spotted three giant black holes within a titanic collision of three galaxies.

(Three Black Holes on Collision Course, NASA)

La! if you have not got your spotted muslin on!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But, until now, astronomers had not spotted ‘black hole food’ — gas and dust — in large enough quantities to explain this rapid growth.

(ESO Observations Reveal Black Holes' Breakfast at the Cosmic Dawn, ESO)