Library / English Dictionary

INFANCY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The earliest state of immaturity

Synonyms:

babyhood; infancy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("infancy" is a kind of...):

immatureness; immaturity (not having reached maturity)

Derivation:

infant (a very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The early stage of growth or development

Synonyms:

babyhood; early childhood; infancy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("infancy" is a kind of...):

time of life (a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state)

Meronyms (parts of "infancy"):

oral phase; oral stage ((psychoanalysis) the first sexual and social stage of an infant's development; the mouth is the focus of the libido and satisfaction comes from suckling and chewing and biting)

Derivation:

infant (a very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Signs and symptoms appear in infancy or childhood and may be triggered during fasting or illness.

(Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase, Medium-Chain Deficiency, NCI Thesaurus)

The goal of the current analysis was to determine whether eating high doses of peanut products beginning in infancy would have any adverse effects on infant and child growth and nutrition.

(Peanut allergy prevention strategy is nutritionally safe, NIH)

A rare disorder of infancy characterized by marked reduction or absence of megakaryocytes and thrombocytopenia.

(Congenital Amegakaryocytosis, NCI Thesaurus)

A benign or malignant lesion typically arising in the period between infancy and adulthood.

(Juvenile Lesion, NCI Thesaurus)

They note that previous studies linked antibiotic treatment during infancy with allergies, psoriasis, obesity, diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease later in life.

(Prolonged antibiotic treatment may alter preterm infants’ microbiome, National Institutes of Health)

You were attached to each other from your earliest infancy; you studied together, and appeared, in dispositions and tastes, entirely suited to one another.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It is a relatively uncommon tumor, which may occur at any age from infancy.

(Pilomatricoma, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

This represented an 81% reduction of peanut allergy in children who regularly ate peanut products beginning in infancy.

(Peanut Consumption in Infancy Lowers Peanut Allergy, NIH)

This is the first October that she has passed in the country since her infancy.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

From their infancy, they have been intended for each other.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)