Abstract The ratios of dust to free electron and free to trapped electron temperatures are examined in warm dusty plasmas with vortex-like electron distribution through the derivation of a modified Korteweg–de Vries (MKdV) equation using a reductive perturbation theory. As the wave amplitude increases, the width and velocity of the soliton deviate from the prediction of the MKdV equation, i.e., the breakdown of the MKdV approximation. To describe the soliton of larger amplitude, the MKdV equation with the fifth-order dispersion term is employed and its higher-order solutions are obtained.