noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The earliest period of childhood (crawling rather than walking). countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the earliest state of immaturity wordnet
3. 3
   The state of being an infant. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   the early stage of growth or development wordnet
5. 5
   An early stage in the development of anything. countable, figuratively, uncountable

   "Space tourism is still in its infancy."

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6. 6
   The state of being a minor. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

babyhoodbabyhoodbabyshipbabyshipbeginningbeginnings

Example

More examples

"Space science is still in its infancy."

Etymology

From Middle English infancie, from Latin īnfantia (“infancy, early childhood; childishness”), equivalent to infant + -cy.

Related phrases

infancy gospelsevere myoclonic epilepsy of infancy

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.