Lullaby

How to spell lullaby

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce lullaby

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lullaby mean?

1. nounA quiet, soothing song sung to help a child fall asleep.

Lullaby in a sentence

• She hummed a soft lullaby until the baby drifted off.

• The music box played a gentle lullaby each night.

Where does lullaby come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word lullaby took shape in English around the late 1500s and is built from two soothing pieces. The first is the verb 'lull', meaning to calm or quieten, which itself imitates the soft, repetitive 'lu lu' sounds a parent murmurs to settle a baby; similar lulling syllables appear in many languages. The second part is 'by' or 'bye', the gentle hushing word also heard in 'bye-bye', used to send a child off to sleep. Put together, the two crooning sounds describe exactly what the song does: it lulls a child off with a 'lulla' and a 'bye'. Because the word grew from soothing noises rather than a single classical root, its spelling can surprise writers, who often add an extra 'e' to make 'lullabye'; the standard form keeps the double l of 'lull' and ends simply in '-aby'.

How the word is built

• lull (to soothe, calm)
• -a- (linking vowel)
• by (from 'bye', a soothing sound used to hush a child)