# babe

> English word · Noun · IPA /beɪb/ · frequency rank #5,938

## Definitions
1. A baby or infant; a very young human or animal.
2. An attractive person, especially a young woman.
3. Darling (term of endearment).

## Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰā-
Proto-Germanic *bō-redup.
Proto-Germanic *babô
Proto-West Germanic *babō
Old English *baba
Middle English babe
English babe
From Middle English babe, a variant of earlier baban, perhaps from Old English *baba (“boy, child”), from Proto-West Germanic *babō, from Proto-Germanic *babô, reduplicated variant of *ba-, *bō- (“father, brother, close male relation”).
cognates and related terms
Related to Old Frisian bobba (“child”) (whence North Frisian babbe, babb, babe (“child”)), Old High German Babo (a male forename), see boy. Otherwise, origin obscure. Compare mama, dada, papa. Welsh baban (“baby”), believed by Skeat to be a mutation of maban, a diminutive of mab (“son”), is probably rather a borrowing from English. Cognate also with English bub.

## Easily confused with
- **be** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-be)
- **BB** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bb)
- **bad** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bad)
- **bar** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bar)
- **bag** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bag)
- **bay** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bay)
- **bob** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bob)
- **BBC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bbc)
- **ban** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-ban)
- **bye** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bye)
- **bat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bat)
- **bee** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bee)
- **BBQ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bbq)
- **bam** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bam)
- **BAE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bae)
- **Bas** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bas)
- **bai** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bai)
- **BBW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bbw)
- **bal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bal)
- **bao** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/babe-vs-bao)

## Common misspellings (5)
`abbe`, `babbe`, `baeb`, `bbabe`, `bbae`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/babe