mole

The word “mole” means a small, raised, often dark spot on the skin. In plain terms, most commonly a skin blemish or the small burrowing animal; also used for a secret infiltrator, and, in chemistry, a unit of quantity.

“Mole” is pronounced mohl (/mol/ in IPA).

Here is “mole” used in a sentence: “The doctor checked an unusual mole on his back.”

Words with a similar meaning to “mole” include molewarp and mouldwarp.

“Mole” is a noun.

The word “mole” comes from Old English. The skin-spot and animal senses trace back to Old English mal, meaning "spot" or "blemish." The chemistry unit comes from a shortening of "molecule.".

“Mole” is an uncommon word in modern English.

“Mole” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a small, raised, often dark spot on the skin.

A skin mole is a small, raised, often dark spot, while the animal mole is a small burrowing mammal with tiny eyes and large digging paws. The two senses are unrelated in meaning but share the same spelling.

In espionage, a mole is a spy who has secretly infiltrated an organization, often over a long period, to pass along its secrets from the inside. This sense is common in fiction and news coverage of intelligence agencies.

In chemistry, a mole is the standard unit for measuring an amount of a substance, used to count particles like atoms or molecules. It is one of the base units in the International System of Units.

Context makes the meaning clear: skin care topics point to the dermatological sense, gardening or nature topics point to the animal, spy stories point to the espionage sense, and science topics point to the chemistry unit.