Meanings
plural bellybuttons · alternative belly button
- informalThe navel or umbilicus.
Always used to have pain about navel when a boy (used to call it bellybutton ache)[…]
1909, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal1 more example
Some people can’t even bear the thought of picking the fluff out of their bellybuttons - these people suffer from what is known as omphalophobia.
2019 June 28, “Five phobias you didn’t know existed”, in BBC Bitesize
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna scar where the umbilical cord was attached
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰelǵʰ-
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰólǵʰis
- Proto-Germanic*balgiz
- Proto-West Germanic*balgi
- Old Englishbielġ
- Middle Englishbely
- Englishbelly
- Englishbutton
- Englishbellybutton
Cite this entry
bellybutton. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bellybutton
“bellybutton.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bellybutton. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bellybutton,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bellybutton.
Source: bellybutton on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.