cradle

1. 1.

   a baby bed with sides and rockers

   Broaderbaby bed

   Partsrocker
2. 2.

   where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence

   “the birthplace of civilization”

   Synonymsbirthplaceplace of originprovenanceprovenience

   Broaderbeginning
3. 3.

   birth of a person

   “he was taught from the cradle never to cry”

   Broaderbirth
4. 4.

   a trough that can be rocked back and forth; used by gold miners to shake auriferous earth in water in order to separate the gold

   Synonymsrocker

   Broadertrough

Other forms of cradle

plural

cradles·

past tense

cradled·

present participle

cradling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about cradle

What does cradle mean?

cradle means "hold gently and carefully". That is the primary sense; the word has 10 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in cradle?

cradle has 2 syllables: cra-dle. The stress falls on "cra". In IPA it is /ˈkɹeɪdəl/.

What is another word for cradle?

Close synonyms include birthplace, place of origin, provenance, provenience, rocker. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cradle a common word?

cradle is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.