sea butterfly

noun

1. any member of the gastropod order Pteropoda, shelled marine mollusks so called for their ability to swim using winglike extensions of the foot.

sea butterfly

noun

1. See pteropod
   another name for pteropod

Word History and Origins

Origin of sea butterfly¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

You can go to the Southern Ocean today and pick up a little shelled sea butterfly in your hand and you can see that the shell is dissolving—there’s actually etching on the aragonite that forms the shell.

From Nautilus