Dictionary.com

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 Cooking.

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.

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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, made mast, mademoiselle, made of money

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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

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
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012