pacifier
Americannoun
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pacifiers
plural
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a person or thing that pacifies.
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a rubber or plastic device, often shaped into a nipple, for a baby to suck or bite on.
noun
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a person or thing that pacifies
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a baby's dummy or teething ring
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pacifier
Explanation
A pacifier is a soothing device for babies that's made of rubber, silicone, or plastic. If you can picture the cartoon character Maggie Simpson, then you can picture a pacifier. Most infants are born with a strong need to suck, and many of them suck their own thumbs or fingers to soothe themselves. A pacifier works the same way. While some parents and even doctors worry that continuing to use pacifiers too long can damage babies' developing teeth and palates, such problems are actually very rare. The original meaning of pacifier is "anything (or anyone) that pacifies," from the Latin pacificare, "make peace; calm."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Either way, it’s a very expensive and public equivalent of giving a pacifier to an infant.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
And it turns out there’s an ingenious, inexpensive little invention that combines the pacifier with the medicine syringe.
From Slate ● May 17, 2026
“Was just reading today that newborns will suck on a pacifier more vigorously if it triggers playback of a recording of her/his mother’s voice than another woman’s voice,” Tramo wrote to Epstein.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
The software records data as an infant sucks on the pacifier and compares that data with information from other infants.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 29, 2024
He sucked on his nummer, the rubber pacifier his mother had just begun to tell him that he was getting too old for.
From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman
On one of the days in court, she brought the couple's two young children, who were both dressed in suits with pacifiers in their mouths.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2025
Plastic is used in all kinds of things, and it is not controversial at all to say that the amount of mercury in, say, pacifiers for babies should be none.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2024
They held clocks, baby pacifiers, napkins and other cleaning equipment, as well as chains they said symbolized the challenges that domestic servants face in Indonesia.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 14, 2023
Babies "R" Us was the go-to destination for parents looking for cribs, pacifiers and diaper bags until stores were shut in June 2018.
From Reuters ● Jan. 10, 2023
He said games as if he’d said pacifiers or tricycles.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
