Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

babysit

/ˈbeɪ.bi.sɪt/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.03 in modern English

Syllables: babysit
IPA: /ˈbeɪ.bi.sɪt/

14

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

3

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money.

verb

To watch or tend a thing or process without normally intervening in it, e.g. as a precaution should an emergency happen.

Informal; Transitive verb

verb

To watch or attend anything or anyone more closely than ought to be needed; to have to help or coax too much.

Informal; Transitive verb

Example Sentences

"My daughter is babysitting for the Morgans at number ten, who are going out on a date night."
"We need someone to babysit our children while we go to the theater."
"Bart eventually gets Laura to babysit while Homer and Marge eat at the Sea Captain’s all-you-can-eat seafood joint, The Frying Dutchman."
"The reaction takes several hours, so we leave a graduate student to babysit it."
"He left me to babysit the new guy while he got some work done."
"It was observed by the FBI personnel assigned to “babysit” agent Tricycle that his egregiously excessive spending was causing unwanted attention […]"

Etymology

Back-formation from babysitter.

Usage

Inflected Forms

babysits (present, singular) babysitting (participle, present) babysat (participle, past) babysat (past) babysitted (participle, past) babysitted (past, uncommon) baby-sit (alternative)

Derived Forms

birdysit

Frequently Paired Words

babysitter catsit dogsit housesit

Synonyms

childsit coddle baby-sit sit

Questions

How do you pronounce babysit?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈbeɪ.bi.sɪt/.
What does babysit mean?: To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money.
Where does babysit come from?: Back-formation from babysitter.

How to pronounce babysit

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Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈbeɪ.bi.sɪt/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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