Mommy

How to spell mommy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mommy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mommy mean?

1. nounAn affectionate, child-directed word for one's mother.

Mommy in a sentence

• The toddler ran to mommy as soon as the gate opened.

• Every drawing on the fridge was labeled for mommy in crayon.

Where does mommy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is an affectionate, nursery form of 'mother', and like its many cousins around the world it ultimately grows out of the babbling sound 'ma' that infants produce among their earliest utterances. English 'mother' descends from the Old English 'modor', which traces back to the Proto-Germanic 'mothar' and the much older Proto-Indo-European root 'mater', meaning simply 'mother'. The clipped pet form 'mom' became common in American usage, and adding the soft diminutive ending '-y' produced the cosy, child-directed 'mommy'. Britain favoured a different vowel and developed 'mummy' instead, which is why the doubled 'm' and the 'o' spelling here mark this out as the chiefly American and Canadian variant. The repeated soft consonants explain why the word feels so natural in the mouth of a toddler.

How the word is built

• mom (childish form of mother)
• -my (affectionate diminutive ending)