Papillon

//ˈpæpɪjɒ̃// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small dog of a certain toy spaniel breed having large upright ears with a shape that resembles butterfly wings.

    "The researchers tested various breeds, including border collies, golden retrievers, pit bulls, labradors and even Jackson's own little papillon."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of papillon. alt-of
  3. 3
    small slender toy spaniel with erect ears and a black-spotted brown to white coat wordnet
  4. 4
    A surname

Synonyms

All synonyms
doghound

Example

More examples

"The researchers tested various breeds, including border collies, golden retrievers, pit bulls, labradors and even Jackson's own little papillon."

Etymology

From French papillon (“butterfly”), from Latin pāpiliō (“butterfly, moth”). Doublet of papilio and pavilion.

Related phrases

Papillon-Lefèvre syndromePapillon-Léage and Psaume syndrome

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.