babyish

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈbeɪbiɪʃ/ UK /ˈbeɪbiɪʃ/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
characteristic of a baby; childishly immature

He found her babyish sulking increasingly tiresome.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · characteristic of a baby;... childish infantile puerile immature juvenile

Opposites

mature grown-up adult

Word family

Forms babyishness

Derived forms babyishlybabyishness

Related forms baby babe babish

Etymology

From baby + the adjective suffix -ish, baby itself a diminutive of the nursery word babe.

babe Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# babyish

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈbeɪbiɪʃ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbeɪbiɪʃ/

## Meanings
1. characteristic of a baby; childishly immature

## Examples
- He found her babyish sulking increasingly tiresome.

## Synonyms
- childish
- infantile
- puerile
- immature
- juvenile

## Antonyms
- mature
- grown-up
- adult

## Derived Forms
- babyishly
- babyishness

## Related Forms
- baby
- babe
- babish

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: babe

## Etymology
From baby + the adjective suffix -ish, baby itself a diminutive of the nursery word babe.

## AI Etymology
babyish comes from baby + the adjective suffix -ish, baby itself a diminutive of the nursery word babe. Morphologically, the word is transparent: -ish is attached to the older base named in the history, so the modern form packages an inherited or borrowed stem inside a later English derivative. In modern use, the adjective sense is "characteristic of a baby; childishly immature", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as baby, babe, babish and derivatives such as babyishly, babyishness, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Middle English babe, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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