TOP

Definition of infant noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

infant

noun
 
 
/ˈɪnfənt/
 
/ˈɪnfənt/
jump to other results
  1.  
    (formal or specialist) a baby or very young child
    • a nursery for infants under two
    • their infant son
    • She was seriously ill as an infant.
    • Mozart was an infant prodigy (= a young child with unusual ability).
    In North American English infant is only used for a baby, especially a very young one.
    Extra Examples
    • Marjorie looked down at the sleeping infant in her arms.
    • a book on intellectual development in the human infant
    • countries with high infant mortality
    • jaundice in premature infants
    • We studied newborn infants up to two months old.
    Topics Life stagesc1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • young
    • month-old
    • two-month-old
    • …
    verb + infant
    • breastfeed
    • feed
    • nurse
    • …
    infant + noun
    • death
    • mortality
    • child
    • …
    phrases
    • sudden infant death syndrome
    See full entry
  2.  
    (in England and Wales) a child at school between the ages of four and seven
    • The majority of infant teachers are women.
    • I've known her since we were in the infants (= at infant school).
    3. Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French enfant, from Latin infant- ‘unable to speak’, from in- ‘not’ + fant- ‘speaking’ (from the verb fari).
Wordfinder
See infant in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee infant in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
Check pronunciation: infant

Nearby words

trait
noun
 
 
From the Word list
Oxford 5000
B2
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries Word of the Day