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chrysalis

[kris-uh-lis] / ˈkrɪs ə lɪs /


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.

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Trefry likened this awkward time of life to the stage in a butterfly’s development when a caterpillar disappears inside a chrysalis and dissolves into goo before reforming into something entirely new.

From Salon ● Nov. 24, 2025

Nearly every one of those caterpillars at some point drops from the tree canopy to overwinter or create a chrysalis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

Also like Mozart, Tao emerged from the often-precarious chrysalis of childhood as a prodigy to become a complex artist, tirelessly curious to seek out new challenges.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2024

"By the time we emerged from the chrysalis, we were fully formed," bassist Georgia Davies told the BBC last month.

From BBC ● Dec. 7, 2023

She would emerge like a butterfly from a chrysalis.

From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby

If you spent a week in the dry forest as a child, examining chrysalides and ocelot droppings, you might, as an adult, see the forest as something other than a purely economic resource.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 30, 2015

Maryette leaned over and looked into the wooden box, where lay the chrysalides.

From Barbarians by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

Everywhere were tiny chrysalides and cocoons, many empty.

From Jungle Peace by William Beebe

Now let us return to one of the chrysalides that we have already watched through the earlier stages of its existence, and follow it in its future development.

From Butterflies and Moths (British) by William S. Furneaux

Caterpillars which are about to be transformed into chrysalides weave a cocoon, a very close dwelling in which they can go through their metamorphosis far from exterior troubles.

From The Industries of Animals by Frédéric Houssay

The world’s top AI companies are now emerging from their private-market chrysalises to sell shares via initial public offerings.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

For instance, well-meaning people have bought monarch-rearing kits online and even taken monarch butterfly chrysalises out of the wild to rear indoors.

From National Geographic ● Oct. 4, 2023

Then they transition to pupae, or chrysalises, for a week or two before emerging, or eclosing, for a short, winged adulthood.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2022

They lived in a mesh cage and grew bigger, much like the hero of Carle’s book, until they crawled and wiggled toward the top of the container, turning themselves into chrysalises.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2021

“In these collections, I saw countless other insects, but in a manner that lack both their origin and how they reproduced, that is to say how they changed from caterpillars to chrysalises and so on.”

From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman




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