New-born or newborn?
new-born is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of newborn”; newborn is an adjective meaning “Recently born”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. new-born is written with a hyphen and newborn as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between new-born and newborn?
| new-born | newborn | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of newborn | Recently born Born anew, reborn A recently born baby |
| Example | none recorded | newborn baby |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 6.0 times per million words |
Sources: new-born and newborn in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of new-born and newborn
new-born
- 1
Alternative spelling of newborn
- 2
Alternative spelling of newborn
newborn
- 1
Recently born
newborn baby
- 2
A recently born baby
- 3
Born anew, reborn
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, new-born or newborn?
new-born is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; newborn 6.0 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).