# butterfly

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/ · frequency rank #7,891

## Definitions
1. A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
2. A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.
3. The butterfly stroke.
4. Any of several plane curves that look like a butterfly; see Butterfly curve (transcendental) and Butterfly curve (algebraic).
5. Ellipsis of butterflies in one’s stomach (“A sensation of excited anxiety felt in the stomach”).
6. Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable.
7. A combination of four options of the same type at three strike prices giving limited profit and limited risk.
8. A random change in an aspect of the timeline seemingly unrelated to the primary point of divergence, resulting from the butterfly effect.
9. 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.
10. A person who changes partners frequently.
11. A safety link or detaching hook above the cage attached to the winding rope to prevent the cage from being overwound.
12. party switcher; turncoat.

## Etymology
From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English buterflēoge, equivalent to butter + fly. Cognate with Dutch botervlieg, German Butterfliege (“butterfly”). The name may have originally been applied to butterflies of a yellowish color, or reflected a belief that butterflies ate milk and butter (compare German Molkendieb (“butterfly”, literally “whey-thief”) and Low German Botterlicker (“butterfly”, literally “butter-licker”)), or that they excreted a butter-like substance (compare Dutch boterschijte (“butterfly”, literally “butter-excretor”)). Compare also German Schmetterling from Schmetten (“cream”), German Low German Bottervögel (“butterfly”, literally “butter-fowl”). More at butter, fly.
An alternate theory suggests that the first element may have originally been Old English butor- (“beater”), a mutation of bēatan (“to beat”), but this would not explain the cognates in other languages or the other names formed with milk products.
Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”).

## Easily confused with
- **buttery** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/butterfly-vs-buttery)
- **bitterly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bitterly-vs-butterfly)

## Common misspellings (13)
`bbutterfly`, `btuterfly`, `buterfly`, `butetrfly`, `buttefrly`, `butterffly`, `butterflly`, `butterflyy`, `butterfyl`, `butterlfy`, `butterrfly`, `buttrefly`, `ubtterfly`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/butterfly