🧁 A small cake 💭 A memory trigger

madeleine

1 5.5

A small soft cake shaped like a shell often served with tea

noun
/ˌmædəˈlɛn/

: madeleine

"Please help yourself to the madeleines," she said, gesturing to the cookies.
tea and a madeleine
chocolate-dipped madeleine

Examples

My mother used to make fresh madeleine every morning.

The Transporter (2002)
Oh, my God, These madeleines are amazing.
Could a world open on a tea-softened madeleine?

Fiction book (1990)
She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called "petits madeleines."

Academic text (1993)
I enjoyed a warm madeleine with my afternoon tea.
At the café, they serve delicious madeleines fresh from the oven.
She always bakes madeleines for special occasions like birthdays.

Synonyms

sponge cake

vsmadeleine

7 1.8

A light, airy cake that uses eggs, flour and sugar without butter or oil

is much smaller shell shaped and often served with tea or coffee

vanilla sponge cake

vsmadeleine

1.0

A light, soft cake flavored with vanilla

is much smaller shell shaped and often served with tea or coffee

Victoria sponge

vsmadeleine

4.7

A light cake made from two sponge layers sandwiched with jam and usually cream

is a small single shell shaped cake usually served with tea or coffee

Compounds

madeleine moment

Literature

9.6

A sudden memory from a smell or sound that makes you feel as if you are back in the past

Surface Forms

madeleine singular

madeleines plural

Etymology

Madeleine comes from the French woman's name Madeleine, which comes from Magdalene (as in Mary Magdalene). The cake took that name long ago, and today a madeleine is a small, shell-shaped cake often served with tea.