Word.ws English Dictionary

papillon

Syllables: pa·pil·lon/ˈpæpɪjɒ̃/

papillon noun: a small dog of a certain toy spaniel breed having large upright ears with a shape that resembles butterfly wings.

papillon: a small dog of a certain toy spaniel breed having large upright ears with a shape that resembles...
Image: André Feldmann ( tuxsam70 ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

papillon (plural papillons)

  1. A small dog of a certain toy spaniel breed having large upright ears with a shape that resembles butterfly wings.
    • The researchers tested various breeds, including border collies, golden retrievers, pit bulls, labradors and even Jackson's own little papillon.2014 November 29, Rachel Nuwer, “Lassie gets an upgrade”, in New Scientist, number 2997, page 47

Noun (2) capitalized: Papillon

Papillon (plural Papillons)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of papillon.
  2. A surname

papillon meaning in Vietnamese

papillon in Vietnamese

dog breed — see also Continental Toy Spaniel
chó bướm

Forms of papillon

pluralpapillons
alternative formPapillon
pluralPapillons

Plural of papillon: papillons

Origin of papillon

From French papillon (“butterfly”), from Latin pāpiliō (“butterfly, moth”). Doublet of papilio and pavilion.

Words formed from papillon

Questions about papillon

What does papillon mean?
Papillon means a small dog of a certain toy spaniel breed having large upright ears with a shape that resembles butterfly wings.
What is papillon in Vietnamese?
Papillon in Vietnamese is chó bướm. See Papillon meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is papillon?
Papillon is a noun.
How do you pronounce papillon?
Papillon is pronounced /ˈpæpɪjɒ̃/.
What is the plural of papillon?
The plural of papillon is papillons.

Words near papillon in the dictionary

  1. papillomatotic
  2. papillomatous
  3. papillomaviral
  4. papillomavirus
  5. papillomaviruses
  6. papillon
  7. Papillon-Lefèvre syndrome
  8. Papillon-Léage and Psaume syndrome
  9. papillons
  10. papillorenal
  11. papillorenal syndrome

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: papillon (page history and authors); Papillon (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-papillon.wav.

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