Butterfly
Last Updated: January 2, 2026 at 12:30 PM
Scrabble:17 ptsWWF:19 pts9 letters
Definition of Butterfly
Noun
- A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}
- 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).
- Ellipsis of butterflies in one’s stomach (“A sensation of excited anxiety felt in the stomach”).
"I get terrible butterflies before an exam."
Verb
- 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."
Anagrams of Butterfly
Words You Can Make
50 words can be made from the letters in "butterfly":