Word.ws English Dictionary

child-like

child-like is the alternative spelling of childlike.

Meaning of childlike

Adjective

childlike (comparative more childlike, superlative most childlike)

  1. Innocent and trustful; credulous; artless.
    • According to the prevailing Danish rationale, Greenlanders were naïve and childlike, in need of protection and incapable of governing themselves.2019 August 22, Matthew H. Birkhold, “A Brief History of the Indignities Heaped Upon Greenland”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 16 Jul 2020
  2. Of, like, or suitable for a child.
    • Even Mario is given childlike mannerisms – running open-armed like a fearless toddler, whooping with delight – to convey playful innocence.2019 May 8, Jon Bailes, “Save yourself! The video games casting us as helpless children”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 09 Apr 2023
    Synonyms:
    childish, childly

Forms of child-like

comparativemore child-like
superlativemost child-like

Questions about child-like

What is child-like the alternative spelling of?
Child-like is the alternative spelling of childlike.

Words near child-like in the dictionary

  1. child-free
  2. child-fucker
  3. child-fuckers
  4. child-great
  5. child-in-law
  6. child-like
  7. child-mind
  8. child-minded
  9. child-minding
  10. child-minds
  11. child-molester

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: child-like (page history and authors); childlike (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “child-like.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/child-like. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.