Word.ws English Dictionary

merlette

Syllables: mer·letteUK/məːˈlɛt/US/mɚˈlɛt/

merlette noun: in French heraldry, a depiction of a mythological bird without beak or feet.

merlette: in French heraldry, a depiction of a mythological bird without beak or feet
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

merlette (plural merlettes)

  1. In French heraldry, a depiction of a mythological bird without beak or feet.

Forms of merlette

pluralmerlettes

Origin of merlette

From Late Middle English [Term?], from Anglo-Norman merlet (from merle (“blackbird”) + -et (“suffix forming a noun”)), or from Middle French merlette (“little blackbird; merlette (heraldic charge)”) (from merle (“blackbird”)—formerly a feminine noun) + -ette (“diminutive suffix for a feminine noun”). Merle is from Latin merula (“blackbird”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“black; blackbird”).

Questions about merlette

What does merlette mean?
Merlette means in French heraldry, a depiction of a mythological bird without beak or feet.
What part of speech is merlette?
Merlette is a noun.
How do you pronounce merlette?
Merlette is pronounced /məːˈlɛt/ (UK).
What is the plural of merlette?
The plural of merlette is merlettes.

Words near merlette in the dictionary

  1. merlassers
  2. merle
  3. Merleau-Pontian
  4. merled
  5. merles
  6. merlette
  7. merlettes
  8. merlin
  9. Merlin chair
  10. Merlin chairs
  11. Merlin's grass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: merlette (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.

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