Word.ws English Dictionary

thistle butterfly

thistle butterfly noun: a butterfly of the genus Vanessa, especially the painted lady Vanessa cardui.

Noun

thistle butterfly (plural thistle butterflies)

  1. A butterfly of the genus Vanessa, especially the painted lady Vanessa cardui.
    • The butterflies were all of one description and among the most beautiful of our country. They were caught very easily in a net, and were recognized as the thistle butterfly, called in French, the belle-dame.1828 July, “Emigration of Butterflies”, in Benjamin Silliman, editor, The American Journal of Science and Arts, volume 14, page 388

Forms of thistle butterfly

pluralthistle butterflies

Questions about thistle butterfly

What does thistle butterfly mean?
Thistle butterfly means a butterfly of the genus Vanessa, especially the painted lady Vanessa cardui.
What part of speech is thistle butterfly?
Thistle butterfly is a noun.
What is the plural of thistle butterfly?
The plural of thistle butterfly is thistle butterflies.

Words near thistle butterfly in the dictionary

  1. thissen
  2. thissun
  3. thistle
  4. thistle bird
  5. thistle butterflies
  6. thistle butterfly
  7. thistle button
  8. thistle buttons
  9. thistle crown
  10. thistle crowns
  11. thistle funnel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thistle 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.

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