ringlet

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a long curl of hair shaped like a small ring or spiral

   One dark ringlet had fallen across her forehead.

2. 2
   noun

   a small ring, circle, or ring-shaped mark

   The jeweler added a silver ringlet to the end of the chain.

3. 3
   noun

   zoology: any of several usually brown butterflies with ringlike eyespots on their wings

   A ringlet settled on the grass with its wings closed.

Formed from ring + the diminutive suffix -let, literally 'a small ring.' The hair sense compares a spiral curl to a ring, while several butterflies received the name from the ring-shaped eyespots on their wings.

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