mille-feuille

See also: millefeuille

English

Etymology

French mille-feuille

Unadapted borrowing from French mille-feuille (literally “a thousand sheets”). Doublet of milfoil. Compare Spanish milhojas.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /miːlˈfɔɪ/, /miːlˈfɜː.i/, /miːlˈfəː.i/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌmilˈfɔɪ/, /milˈfwi/, /ˌmil.fəˈwi/

Noun

mille-feuille (countable and uncountable, plural mille-feuilles)

1. A type of pastry made of several layers of puff pastry usually filled with cream or custard, and topped with icing or sugar.

   Synonyms: Napoleon cake, Napoleon pastry, napoleon (originally US slang)

   • 1983 November 9, Susan Heller Anderson, “Coast’s Latest: ‘FrancAsian’ Cuisine”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 May 2015:

     “Into French food we try to put Japanese techniques, and the traditional Japanese artistic feeling,” Mr. [Susumu] Fukui said. […] Here, mille-feuille is not a flaky pastry confection but layered slices of sashimi in a traditional French vinaigrette.

Alternative forms

• millefeuille

Coordinate terms

• custard slice
• Napoleon slice
• vanilla slice

Translations

a type of pastry with several layers of puff pastry

• Arabic: مِيل فَاي m (mīl fāy), مِيل فُوي m (mīl fūy)
• Armenian: նապոլեոն (hy) (napoleon)
• Azerbaijani: Napoleon tortu
• Basque: hostopil
• Bulgarian: милфей m (milfej), наполеон m (napoleon)
• Catalan: milfulls m, milfulles m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 拿破崙 / 拿破仑 (naa⁴ po³ leon⁴), 拿破崙千層酥 / 拿破仑千层酥 (naa⁴ po³ leon⁴ cin¹ cang⁴ sou¹)

  Mandarin: 法式千層酥 / 法式千层酥 (fàshì qiāncéngsū), 蝴蝶酥 (zh) (húdiésū), 拿破崙酥 / 拿破仑酥 (nápòlún sū), 拿破崙蛋糕 / 拿破仑蛋糕 (nápòlún dàngāo)

• Danish: napoleonskage c
• Dutch: tompoes (nl) m
• Finnish: napoleoninleivos, napoleonleivos
• French: mille-feuille (fr) m
• Galician: milfollas (gl) m
• German: Cremeschnitte f
• Greek: μιλφέιγ (el) n (milféig)
• Hebrew: קְרֶם שְׁנִיט (he) m (krem shnit), מִילְפֶיּ m (milféy), עוּגַת נָפּוֹלְיוֹן f (ugát napoleón)
• Hungarian: krémes (hu)
• Indonesian: kue napoleon (literally “Napoleon cake”)
• Italian: millefoglie (it) m or f
• Japanese: ミルフィーユ (ja) (mirufīyu)
• Korean: 밀푀유 (milpoeyu)
• Limburgish: craemsjnitje
• Luxembourgish: Mille-feuille
• Norwegian: napoleonskake m or f
• Persian: شیرینی ناپلئونی (širini nâpele'oni), میل‌فِی (mil-fey)
• Polish: napoleonka (pl) f
• Portuguese: mil-folhas m
• Romanian: cremșnit (ro) n
• Russian: наполео́н (ru) m (napoleón)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кремшните n

  Latin: kremšnite n

• Spanish: milhojas (es) m
• Swedish: napoleonbakelse c
• Turkish: milföy (tr)
• Vietnamese: bánh minfơi, bánh minphơi

Further reading

• mille-feuille on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

une tranche de mille-feuille ― a slice of millefeuille

des fleurs de mille-feuille ― yarrow flowers

Alternative forms

• millefeuille

Etymology

From mille (“a thousand”) +‎ feuille (“leaf, layer”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mil.fœj/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -œj

Noun

mille-feuille m (plural mille-feuilles)

2. (cooking) mille-feuille, vanilla slice
3. (figurative) something layered, entangled and complex

   le mille-feuille administratif ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   un mille-feuille argumentatif ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   • 2025 September 14, Olivier Biscaye, quoting Sébastien Lecornu, “Sébastien Lecornu : “Ni instabilité ni immobilisme””, in La Provence:

     En parallèle, le millefeuille administratif a parfois conduit à une dilution des responsabilités et à des surcoûts.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• → Catalan: milfulls (calque)
• → English: mille-feuille

Noun

mille-feuille f (plural mille-feuilles)

2. (botany) common yarrow, yarrow, milfoil (Achillea millefolium)

   Synonym: achillée

Further reading

• “mille-feuille”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
• mille-feuille on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr