Articulated Having movable joints, so limbs (and sometimes head) can be posed.
Ball-jointed doll (BJD) A doll articulated with ball-and-socket joints, usually strung together with internal elastic.
Bébé A 19th-century French doll modelled as a young child rather than an adult woman.
Bisque Unglazed porcelain with a matte, skin-like finish; the classic material of fine antique dolls.
Celluloid An early plastic used for lightweight dolls c. 1900–1950s; brittle and flammable.
China doll A doll with a head of glazed (glossy) porcelain, typically German, c. 1840–1880.
Composition A moulded mix of wood pulp, glue and fillers used for doll bodies and heads in the early 20th century.
Gofun A lustrous white coating of powdered oyster shell and glue used on traditional Japanese dolls.
Golu (Bommai Kolu) A South Indian festival display of dolls arranged on tiered steps during Navaratri.
Gudiya A Hindi word for “doll.”
Hina ningyō The ornate court dolls displayed in Japan for Hinamatsuri, the girls’ festival on 3 March.
Kimekomi A Japanese technique of dressing a doll by tucking cloth edges into grooves cut in a wooden body.
Kokeshi A limbless turned-wood doll from northern Japan, painted with regional patterns.
Matryoshka A Russian set of hollow wooden dolls nested one inside another; first made in the 1890s.
Ningyō The Japanese word for “doll,” literally “human form.”
Paddle doll A flat wooden ancient-Egyptian figure with painted decoration and bead “hair.”
Parian Untinted white unglazed porcelain used for delicate display dolls, c. 1850s–1880s.
Poppet An old English word for a small doll or figure, sometimes used in folk belief.
Putul A Bengali and Assamese word for “doll,” and the name of this site.
Reborn doll A vinyl doll extensively repainted, weighted and rooted to resemble a real newborn.
Slip Liquid clay poured into a mould to cast porcelain doll parts.
Thalaiyatti bommai The Thanjavur “head-shaking” bobble-head doll of Tamil Nadu, India.