Motherese

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Baby talk. uncountable

    "With its slow and exaggerated intonations, motherese speeds language learning by providing input that is easier for infants to process."

  2. 2
    an adult's imitation of the speech of a young child wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
baby talkbaby talkbabytalk

Example

More examples

"With its slow and exaggerated intonations, motherese speeds language learning by providing input that is easier for infants to process."

Etymology

From mother + -ese.

Related phrases

baby talk

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