Word.ws English Dictionary

preemie

/ˈpɹiːmi/

preemie noun: a baby that has been born prematurely.

Noun

preemie (plural preemies)

  1. (informal) A baby that has been born prematurely.
    • Prematurity is the leading cause of neonatal death, and preemies who survive are at risk for lifelong health problems.2003 February 10, David Bjerklie, “A Campaign For Preemies”, in Time, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2011
    Synonyms:
    pretermer

Synonyms of preemie

Forms of preemie

pluralpreemies
alternative formpremie
alternative formpremy

Origin of preemie

From prem(ature) + -ie.

Words formed from preemie

Questions about preemie

What does preemie mean?
Preemie means a baby that has been born prematurely.
What part of speech is preemie?
Preemie is a noun.
How do you pronounce preemie?
Preemie is pronounced /ˈpɹiːmi/.
What is the plural of preemie?
The plural of preemie is preemies.

Words near preemie in the dictionary

  1. preembryonic
  2. preembryos
  3. preemed
  4. preemergence
  5. preemergent
  6. preemie
  7. preemies
  8. preeminant
  9. preeminence
  10. preeminences
  11. preeminency

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preemie (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-preemie.wav.

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