baby talk

noun

Definition of baby talk

1a : the consciously imperfect or altered speech used by adults in speaking to small children

b : the syntactically imperfect speech or phonetically modified forms used by small children learning to talk

2 : oversimplified speech or writing

Examples of baby talk in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even Harry himself got in on the baby talk during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Invictus Games. — Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, "Prince Harry Referenced His Baby With Meghan Markle During His Invictus Games Speech," 21 Oct. 2018 The rest is noise: annoying DJ battles, Dracula passing gas, entire conversations that consist of nonsensical baby talk. — Barbara Vandenburgh, azcentral, "Monsters go on vacation in 'Hotel Transylvania 3'," 12 July 2018 West, hearing the braps, skrrts, and yughs of his peers, has responded with baby talk: scoop! — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, "What Lives in Kanye West’s ‘Ghost Town’," 14 June 2018 Commonplace among languages around the world, baby talk involves speaking to infants in a high-pitched, exaggerated way. — National Geographic, "Do Dogs Really Prefer Baby Talk? You Might Be Surprised.," 31 May 2018 Know Your Audience The results suggest dogs do seem to prefer the canine version of baby talk. — National Geographic, "Do Dogs Really Prefer Baby Talk? You Might Be Surprised.," 31 May 2018 Gizmodo reports that in a study that's been accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, puppies respond to baby talk, but full-grown dogs are apathetic to your cooing. — Sammy Nickalls, Esquire, "Stop Talking to Your Dog in a Baby Voice," 11 Jan. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'baby talk.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.