madeleine
noun
a small shell-shaped cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter and baked in a mold.
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madeleine
1 American
[mad-l-in, mad-l-eyn, ma duh-len]
/ ˈmæd l ɪn, ˌmæd lˈeɪn, madəˈlɛn /
noun
French Cooking.
-
madeleines
plural
-
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.
Madeleine
2
American
[mad-l-in, -lahyn, ma duh-len]
/ ˈmæd l ɪn, -ˌlaɪn, madəˈlɛn /
Also
Madelaine,
noun
madeleine
British
/ ˈmædəlɪn, -ˌleɪn /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
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
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The taste of a madeleine famously sent French writer Marcel Proust back into vivid memories of childhood.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
As Van Gogh had his sunflowers and Proust his madeleine, so Neil Diamond had a bottle of cheap Canadian booze.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
For him, pinball games unlock memories, much as the madeleine did for Proust.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
GERWIG: In “Remembrance of Things Past,” in “Swann’s Way,” he is literally thrown back into his childhood through the taste of the madeleine.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2023
She offered the squirrel a morsel of petite madeleine.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
Sean McCann - the younger brother of Madeleine McCann - will swim for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Saturday.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
“The Nolans project is a major step forward for Australia’s rare earths industry,” said Australia’s Resources Minister Madeleine King.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
One was former Amnesty International and UN researcher Madeleine Penman, who investigated disappearances in Tamaulipas between 2015 and 2019.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
“There’s a lot of work to be done on how we do collaborate and work together to develop this industry,” Madeleine King, Australia’s mining minister, said Feb. 4.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
He couldn’t even imagine hitting Madeleine with a snowball.
From "Orbiting Jupiter" by Gary D. Schmidt
For dessert, Proust's beloved madeleines and mirabelles jostled for attention with distinctly American-accented glazed doughnuts.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
A French grandmother hops aboard to teach passengers how to make apple-packed tarte Tatin and madeleines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
On Jan. 21, lucky diners can get their hands on red envelopes stuffed with everything from a new year wish to gift cards for $25, madeleines or soft serve ice cream.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 18, 2023
But such is the curious performer-audience dynamic of jukebox biomusicals, whose playlists so instantly unlock remembrance that they might as well be madeleines.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2022
I’m reminded of those perfect Saturday afternoons when Dad would bake his famous madeleines and Mom would stop working to play board games with me and Andre at the kitchen table.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
