startle reflex

1. 1.

   a normal reflex of young infants; a sudden loud noise causes the child to stretch out the arms and flex the legs

   SynonymsMoro reflex

   Broaderstartle

Questions about startle reflex

What does startle reflex mean?

startle reflex means "a normal reflex of young infants; a sudden loud noise causes the child to stretch out the arms and flex the legs".

What is another word for startle reflex?

Close synonyms include Moro reflex. 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 startle reflex a common word?

startle reflex is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.