Lactation

//lækˈteɪʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The secretion of milk from the mammary gland of a female mammal. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    feeding an infant by giving suck at the breast wordnet
  3. 3
    The process of providing the milk to the young; breastfeeding. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    the production and secretion of milk by the mammary glands wordnet
  5. 5
    The period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young; a lactation period. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    the period following birth during which milk is secreted wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
chylechylifactionchylificationcolostrumdischargeexcretion

Example

More examples

"The World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO, wants to see at least 50 percent of the world's children under 6 months of age exclusively breastfed by 2025. Reaching that target will require an investment of an additional $5.7 billion, or just $4.70 per newborn, for such things as improving breastfeeding practices in maternity facilities and improving access to lactation counseling — and it could generate $300 billion in economic gains across lower- and middle-income countries by 2025 and save 520,000 children's lives in the next 10 years, according to a World Bank study."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lactātiō, lactātiōnis. Equivalent to lactate + -ion.

Related phrases

induced lactationlactation consultantlactation periodlactation stationmammary gland

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