butterfly
A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
Noun 4 meanings
A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
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).
Verb 3 meanings
To cut (food) almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.
“butterflied shrimp”
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.
“Pearl Harbor not happening would've butterflied Taylor Swift.”
Etymology
From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English buterflēoge, equivalent to butter + fly. Cognate with Dutch botervlieg, German Butterfliege (“butterfly”).
BUTTERFLY at a glance
BUTTERFLY has 9 letters and scores 17 points in Scrabble (B 3 + U 1 + T 1 + T 1 + E 1 + R 1 + F 4 + L 1 + Y 4) and 19 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #7,770 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with butterfly
All rhymes- BRIEFLY15
- CHIEFLY18
- FIREFLY16
- DRAGONFLY17
- SUPERFLY16
- STIFFLY16
- GADFLY14
- MAYFLY17
- BARFLY14
- HOUSEFLY17
- SAWFLY15
- BLOWFLY18
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