wean
verb
Simple meaning
Gradually deprive of mother's milk.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
weenIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwin
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
by extensionchiefly passive voiceoften followed by on
To habituate (someone) to something, especially since childhood.
Gradually deprive (infants and young mammals) of mother's milk
“She weaned her baby when he was 3 months old and started him on powdered milk.”
transitive
To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder.
intransitive
To cease to depend on the mother's milk for nutrition.
transitiveby extensionnormally "wean off"
To cause to quit something to which one is addicted, dependent, or habituated.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Gradually deprive (infants and young mammals) of mother's milk
Used this way, wean is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“She weaned her baby when he was 3 months old and started him on powdered milk.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use wean
- “She weaned her baby when he was 3 months old and started him on powdered milk.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Word Family
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.