madeleine

[ mad-l-in, mad-l-eyn; French maduh-len ]
/ ˈmæd l ɪn, ˌmæd lˈeɪn; French madəˈlɛn /

noun, plural mad·e·leines [mad-l-inz, mad-l-eynz; French maduh-len] /ˈmæd l ɪnz, ˌmæd lˈeɪnz; French madəˈlɛn/. French Cookery.

a small shell-shaped cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter and baked in a mold.
something that triggers memories or nostalgia: in allusion to a nostalgic passage in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

Origin of madeleine

1835–45; < French, earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the female given name; the attribution of the recipe to an 18th-century cook named Madeleine Pau(l)mier is unsubstantiated

Words nearby madeleine

madeira, madeira cake, madeira embroidery, madeira topaz, madeira vine, madeleine, madelung's deformity, madelung's disease, mademoiselle, madera, maderno

Definition for madeleine (2 of 2)

Madeleine
[ mad-l-in, -lahyn; French maduh-len ]
/ ˈmæd l ɪn, -ˌlaɪn; French madəˈlɛn /

noun

a female given name, form of Magdalene.
Also Mad·e·laine, Mad·e·lene [mad-l-in] /ˈmæd l ɪn/, Mad·e·line, Mad·e·lyn.

Example sentences from the Web for madeleine

British Dictionary definitions for madeleine

madeleine
/ (ˈmædəlɪn, -ˌleɪn) /

noun

a small fancy sponge cake

Word Origin for madeleine

C19: perhaps after Madeleine Paulmier, French pastry cook