HOW TO PRONOUNCE
butterfly
/ˈbʌtɚˌflaɪ/
Press play to hear how to pronounce butterfly.
American Pronunciation Guide · 0:39
Watch on YouTube ↗
Watch on YouTube ↗
What does butterfly mean?
noun
- A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
- 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.
- A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.
More meanings (13)
noun
- The butterfly stroke.
- Any of several plane curves that look like a butterfly; see Butterfly curve (transcendental) and Butterfly curve (algebraic).
- Ellipsis of butterflies in one’s stomach (“A sensation of excited anxiety felt in the stomach”).
- A combination of four options of the same type at three strike prices giving limited profit and limited risk.
- A random change in an aspect of the timeline seemingly unrelated to the primary point of divergence, resulting from the butterfly effect.
- 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.
- A safety link or detaching hook above the cage attached to the winding rope to prevent the cage from being overwound.
- (archaic) Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable.
- (derogatory) party switcher; turncoat.
verb
- To cut (food) almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.
- To cut strips of surgical tape or plasters into thin strips, and place across (a gaping wound) to close it.
- 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.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈbʌtɚˌflaɪ/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
Spots of sunshine fell on the white cloth and blue china, the bees and an occasional stray butterfly came searching for food.
Brian and Basil are "punting", leave them their dice and their wine, Bertha is butterfly hunting, surely one hour shall be mine.
More book examples (3)
Another butterfly nearly allied to these, Callithea Leprieurii, was also very abundant here at the marshy head of the pool before mentioned.
For some time she observed a great yellow butterfly, which was opening and closing its wings very slowly on a little flat stone.
“I believe he thinks that Monmouth married me on purely scientific principles as the best specimen he could find of a modern butterfly.”