Babies

How to spell babies

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce babies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does babies mean?

1. nounMore than one very young child or infant.
2. verbTreats someone with excessive care or as though they were helpless.

Babies in a sentence

• noun

  The maternity ward was full of newborn babies that morning.

• verb

  She babies her grown son far too much for his own good.

• noun

  The nursery cared for six babies under the age of one.

• verb

  The manager babies every new recruit instead of letting them learn.

Where does babies come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the plural of 'baby', a word that grew out of Middle English 'babe', itself an imitation of the repetitive 'ba-ba' sounds that infants make before they can speak. Such echoing of nursery babble is found in many languages, which is why related forms turn up widely without a single traceable root. The diminutive ending -y or -ie was added in English to make the affectionate 'baby', recorded from the 1300s, originally meaning a very young child or even a doll. The spelling trap in the plural lies entirely in the ending: English changes a final consonant-plus-y to -ies, so 'baby' becomes 'babies' rather than 'babys'. The same rule governs 'ladies', 'cities', and 'parties', and remembering that pattern is the surest way to keep the spelling right.

How the word is built

• baby (infant; from imitative bab-)
• -es plural, with the final -y changing to -ies