infant
Americannoun
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infants
plural
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a child during the earliest period of their life, especially before they can walk; baby.
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Law. a person who is not of full age, especially one who has not reached the age of 18 years; a minor.
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a beginner, as in experience or learning; novice.
The new candidate is a political infant.
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anything in the first stage of existence or progress.
noun
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a child at the earliest stage of its life; baby
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law another word for minor
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a young schoolchild, usually under the age of seven
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a person who is beginning or inexperienced in an activity
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(modifier)
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of or relating to young children or infancy
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designed or intended for young children
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adjective
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in an early stage of development; nascent
an infant science or industry
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law of or relating to the legal status of infancy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of infant
First recorded in 1350–1400; from Latin infant- (stem of infāns ) “small child,” literally, “one unable to speak,” equivalent to in- in- 3 + -fāns, present participle of fārī “to speak”; replacing Middle English enfaunt, from Anglo-French, from Latin, as above
Explanation
An infant is a baby. When you were an infant, you weren't able to walk, talk, or feed yourself (but you had a pretty mean burp). Infant is most often used for a very young human, but you can also use it to talk about animal babies. People are considered infants from the moment of birth until approximately one year old, an age when many babies are starting to walk and talk. At this point, they're commonly called toddlers instead of infants. The Latin root is infantem, which as a noun means "babe in arms," and as an adjective "unable to speak."
Vocabulary lists containing infant
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:
She had falsified records and one infant in her care had been found covered in their own faeces.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
That life expectancy, however, was heavily skewed by high infant mortality, according to the Social Security Administration.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
Diagnosed as an infant, Ms. Gray endured years of painful crises and repeated hospitalizations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Either way, it’s a very expensive and public equivalent of giving a pacifier to an infant.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
Neither the Revolution nor the infant republic could have succeeded without the support of the southern states, so Adams had deferred to the Virginians to assume leadership of the antislavery movement.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
He is in the middle of a public spat with Pennsylvania officials, including Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, after the state health department reported two measles-associated deaths involving infants.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026
On my boat, a packed, three-deck pleasure cruise otherwise populated by swimsuit-clad tourists and screaming infants, the story was much the same.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
They were powerless against the will of the state, social workers and religious organisations, and the system which supplied infants to adoptive families.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
A fire erupted in a hospital maternity ward in Islamabad on Wednesday killing 14 infants, Pakistan authorities said, blaming a faulty air conditioner for the blaze.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
In human populations exposed to urethane or related chemicals there is a possibility that tumors will develop in infants through prenatal exposure, as Dr. Hueper has warned.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
