butterfly

/ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/[ˈbʌ.tə.flaɪ]

butterfly noun: a flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring. Also the ellipsis of butterflies in one’s stomach.

Image: Culturegeeks, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

butterfly (plural butterflies)

A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
- It is true. I am like a butterfly, and I shall only live a little while.a. 1931 (date written), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “[Personalia and Fragments.] [Autobiographical Fragment].”, in Edward D[avid] McDonald, editor, Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence...
- Dr Andre Gilburn, of the University of Stirling, who led the butterfly study, said: “Our study not only identifies a worrying link between the use of neonicotinoids and declines in butterflies but also suggests that the strength of their impact on many species could be huge.”2015 November 24, Patrick Barkham, “Pesticide may be reason butterfly numbers are falling in UK, says study”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2016
1. (broadly) The imago (final form) of such an insect, consisting usually of a long body with large flat wings, as opposed to earlier instars such as caterpillar or pupa.
  - Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and he was a beautiful butterfly!1969, Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
(attributive) A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.
- butterfly tape; butterfly bandage; butterfly strips
The butterfly stroke.
Any of several plane curves that look like a butterfly; see Butterfly curve (transcendental) and Butterfly curve (algebraic).
(archaic) Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable.
- He was affable; therefore he was frivolous. The women liked him; therefore he was a butterfly.1859, George Meredith, chapter 15, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC
- The day came indeed when her breathless auditors learnt from her in bewilderment that what ailed him was that he was, alas, simply not serious. Maisie wept on Mrs. Wix's bosom after hearing that Sir Claude was a butterfly[…].1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew
A combination of four options of the same type at three strike prices giving limited profit and limited risk.
(alternate history) A random change in an aspect of the timeline seemingly unrelated to the primary point of divergence, resulting from the butterfly effect.
- One potential butterfly could be JFK having another son the year after the POD instead of a daughter.
A type of stretch in which one sits on the ground with the legs folded into a shape like that of a butterfly's wings, slightly rocking them up and down, resembling the wings fluttering.
A person who changes partners frequently.
- What does it mean to be a butterfly in Pattaya? It means, just like a butterfly briefly visits many flowers, you will briefly visit many different girls.2022 December 9, Darren C, “Paying For Bar Girls, Sex in Pattaya”, in Pattaya Unlimited
A safety link or detaching hook above the cage attached to the winding rope to prevent the cage from being overwound.
(Philippine, Philippines, derogatory, often) party switcher; turncoat.

Synonyms:

balimbing, apostate, changeling, defector, runagate, traitor, transfuge, turncloak, turncoat, turntippet

Verb

butterfly (third-person singular simple present butterflies, present participle butterflying, simple past and past participle butterflied)

(transitive) To cut (food) almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.
- butterflied shrimp
- Butterfly the chicken before you grill it.
(transitive) To cut strips of surgical tape or plasters into thin strips, and place across (a gaping wound) to close it.
- After everyone had obeyed his commands, the lieutenant motioned for two medics that now appeared to enter the room and attend to Dr. Carter. They bandaged him up, butterflying some of the deeper gashes and gave him a couple of shots.2006, Paul Garber, Newton's Force, page 256
(transitive) To cause events after the point of divergence to not happen as they did in real history, and people conceived after the point of divergence to not exist in recognizable form, due to the random variations introduced by the butterfly effect.
- Pearl Harbor not happening would've butterflied Taylor Swift.

Also used as

butterfly is also the ellipsis of butterflies in one’s stomach.

butterfly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

butterfly in Tamil

insect: வண்ணத்துப்பூச்சி vaṇṇattuppūcci, பட்டாம்பூச்சி paṭṭāmpūcci, பாப்பாத்தி pāppātti
sensation: பட்டாம்பூச்சி paṭṭāmpūcci

butterfly in Urdu

insect: تِتْلی titlī

More languagesFewer languages

butterfly in Bengali: প্রজাপতি projapoti
butterfly in Telugu: సీతాకోక చిలుక sītākōka ciluka
butterfly in Malayalam: ചിത്രശലഭം citraśalabhaṁ, പൂമ്പാറ്റ pūmpāṟṟa
butterfly in Kannada: ಚಿಟ್ಟೆ ciṭṭe, ಹಾತೆ hāte
butterfly in Punjabi: ਤਿਤਲੀ titlī
butterfly in Gujarati: પતંગિયું pataṅgiyũ, ફૂદું phūdũ
butterfly in Odia: ପ୍ରଜାପତି prajāpati
butterfly in Sanskrit: पतंगम pataṃgama, शलभ śalabha
butterfly in Sinhala: සමනළ samanaḷa, සමනලයා samanalayā
butterfly in Assamese: পখিলা pokhila
butterfly in Nepali: पुतली putali
butterfly in Pashto: شاپرک šāparak, پروانه parwāna, پتنګ patang
butterfly in Tagalog: paruparo, mariposa
butterfly in Arabic: فَرَاشَة farāša, ابو دقيق ʔabu diʔīʔ, فراش farāš, طرفشانة ṭerfešāna
butterfly in Malay: kupu-kupu, rama-rama, kulimambang
butterfly in Indonesian: kupu-kupu, rama-rama
butterfly in Persian: شَوْپَرَک šawparak, پَرْوَانَه parwāna, پَرْوانِه parvâne, پِرْپِروک perperuk
butterfly in Thai: ผีเสื้อ pǐi-sʉ̂ʉa
butterfly in Vietnamese: bươm bướm, bướm
butterfly in Myanmar: လိပ်ပြာ lippra
Sindhi: پوپٽ popaṭu
Dhivehi: ކޮކާ kokā
Kashmiri: پَنہٕ پونٛپُر panhụ pōnpur

Examples of butterfly in a sentence

Kevin had butterflies in his stomach every time he saw Chrissy.
The butterfly collection had each specimen labeled with the scientific name on a little piece of paper.
The flutter that passed us by was made up of monarch butterflies.

All 40 example sentences with butterfly

Synonyms of butterfly

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

withersake

All synonyms of butterfly

Forms of butterfly

Noun
plural	butterflies
Verb
third-person singular present	butterflies
present participle	butterflying
past participle	butterflied
past	butterflied

Plural of butterfly: butterflies

Origin of butterfly

From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English buterflēoge, equivalent to butter + fly. Cognate with Dutch botervlieg, German Butterfliege (“butterfly”). The name may have originally been applied to butterflies of a yellowish color, or reflected a belief that butterflies ate milk and butter (compare German Molkendieb (“butterfly”, literally “whey-thief”) and Low German Botterlicker (“butterfly”, literally “butter-licker”)), or that they excreted a butter-like substance (compare Dutch boterschijte (“butterfly”, literally “butter-excretor”)). Compare also German Schmetterling from Schmetten (“cream”), German Low German Bottervögel (“butterfly”, literally “butter-fowl”). More at butter, fly. An alternate theory suggests that the first element may have originally been Old English butor- (“beater”), a mutation of bēatan (“to beat”), but this would not explain the cognates in other languages or the other names formed with milk products. Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”). Contrary to popularised belief, the form "butterfly" was not derived from an earlier flutterby.

Words formed from butterfly

Phrases with butterfly

85 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about butterfly

What does butterfly mean?: Butterfly means a flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
What is butterfly in Hindi?: Butterfly in Hindi is तितली (titlī). See Butterfly meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is butterfly?: Butterfly can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce butterfly?: Butterfly is pronounced /ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/.
What is the plural of butterfly?: The plural of butterfly is butterflies.

Words near butterfly in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: butterfly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-a butterfly.ogg, en-ca-butterfly.ogg, en-au-butterfly.ogg.

Cite this entry: “butterfly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/butterfly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.