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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

buttonhole.

A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbʌtənˌhoʊl/General-American
  1. A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.

  2. A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.

    UK
  3. A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration. So shaped that it can be worn on a buttonhole or it is similar to a buttonhole.

    UK · attributive
  4. A small slotlike cut or incision, made for example by an accident with the scalpel.

  5. The mouth, nose or eyes of a tiny appearance.

  6. The vagina, a coin slot.

    obsolete
  7. The butthole (anus).

Where this word comes from

Originally buttonhold (“a loop of string to hold a button down”), but changed by folk etymology by influence of hole. By surface analysis, button + hole.

verb/ˈbʌtənˌhoʊl/General-American
  1. To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.

    colloquial · transitive
  2. To cut one or more buttonholes (in).

    ambitransitive
  3. To sew by buttonhole stitch.

    transitive
  4. To make a small slot-like incision in (intentionally or unintentionally).

    archaic · transitive
  5. To apply a flowery formation in.

    rare · transitive
  6. To attain buttonhole-like formations on cutting.

    archaic · intransitive · rare
Where this word comes from

Originally buttonhold (“a loop of string to hold a button down”), but changed by folk etymology by influence of hole. By surface analysis, button + hole.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.