Baby Definition: Uses, Facts, and Practice Examples

To make your study effective, it helps to see how the word “baby” works in everyday speech. Here are some lively and varied examples:

Learning how to use the word “baby” fluently means recognizing its many shades of meaning and the alternatives you can use in different contexts. Here are some of them:

Related nouns: toddler infant newborn kid child

Synonyms (contextual): darling sweetheart little one cutie babe (informal)

Common collocations: hold the baby rock the baby baby cries baby clothes baby steps

When you want to use “baby” a little deeper than just one word, then it can be beneficial to check how it is used in different forms. These are some of the examples to make the word more flexible in your speech and writing:

With adjectives: newborn baby sleepy baby firstborn baby tech-loving baby

With verbs: cradle a baby burp the baby name the baby swaddle the baby sing to the baby

With nouns (noun + noun): baby stroller brand baby care routine baby clothes sale

English is so fond of the word baby and thus deploys it both tenderly and jokingly. These idioms and phrases show how “baby” sneaks into conversations far beyond cribs and lullabies:

• Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater — means to discard something valuable while trying to get rid of something unwanted.

  We need to update the system, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

• Baby steps — refers to making small, gradual progress toward a bigger goal.

    He’s recovering slowly, but baby steps are still steps forward.

• She’s my baby — is used to denote something you care about so much, mostly a project, a car, and an idea.

    I have invested three years in developing this startup; it is my baby.

• Acting like a baby — this implies that a person is too sensitive or too childish.

    Yes, you lost one game, but stop acting like a baby and play the next round.

• Rock the baby — can literally mean soothing a baby, but it can also mean keeping things nice and even handling something delicately.

    In negotiations, you need to rock the baby and not tip the crib.

Would you like to strengthen your vocabulary and understanding of the word “baby”? Try these fun and engaging activities:

Curious how “baby” sounds in other corners of the globe? Here’s how to say baby in three major languages often heard alongside English.

Define a baby, and you’ll probably say “a tiny human”, but language doesn’t stop there. From pop lyrics to Guinness records, this word has a surprisingly adventurous life.

• The youngest person ever to publish a book did it as a baby.

  At an age when most kids are still mastering the alphabet, Saeed Rashed AlMheiri had already become the youngest author at the Guinness World Records, with over 1.000 copies sold by March 2023.

• Babies start off as tiny jigsaw puzzles.

  A baby’s skeleton starts with around 300 bones, giving them the bendy flexibility they need early on. As time passes, some of those bones merge, trimming the total down to 206. Turns out, growing up means less is more(at least for bones).

• A lot of English-language song titles include the word “baby.”

  But most of them aren’t lullabies — they’re love songs in disguise. In music, “baby” usually means heartache, heat, or happily ever after, not pacifiers and playpens.

These quotes have “baby” front and center, but the meanings go deeper. Below, each one comes with a quick note so you’re not left guessing.

— Carl Sandburg

Explanation: This poetic line reflects how babies symbolize hope and renewal, as if nature is giving humanity a reason to continue.

— Frank A. Clark

Explanation: This quote captures the lifelong emotional bond between babies and love: they arrive needy, and their hearts keep that need even when they grow up.

— Tina Brown

Explanation: Here, “baby” is tied to deepening relationships and fresh emotions, showing how a new child can strengthen family bonds.