Toddler

How to spell toddler

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce toddler

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does toddler mean?

1. nounA young child, typically aged between one and three, who is learning to walk.

Toddler in a sentence

• The toddler took her first steps across the living room.

• We childproofed the kitchen before our toddler started exploring.

Where does toddler come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grew out of the verb 'toddle', which described walking with the short, unsteady steps of someone just learning to balance. 'Toddle' first appears in English in the late 1500s, and although its precise source is uncertain, it is thought to be related to dialect words for tottering or moving feebly, perhaps connected to 'totter'. By the early 1700s the agent suffix '-er', the same ending that turns 'walk' into 'walker', was attached to give 'toddler', literally 'one who toddles'. The meaning then settled into its modern sense of a young child roughly between one and three years old who is beginning to walk. The spelling keeps the doubled 'd' from 'toddle', which is the main point worth remembering when writing it.

How the word is built

• toddle (to walk with short unsteady steps)
• -er (agent noun suffix: one who does)