What does infanticide mean?
Infanticide means the deliberate killing of an infant. In modern usage, it is most often found in criminal investigations, historical writing, and discussions of law. The word once had a more specific legal history: many nineteenth-century legal systems treated the killing of a newborn child by its mother as a distinct and sometimes less severely punished offence than other forms of homicide. That historical distinction should not be assumed in contemporary contexts, where the term can refer to the intentional killing of an infant without specifying who was responsible. Although the word can occasionally appear in medical or historical discussions involving an unexplained infant death, it should not be used as a substitute for an accidental death. Infanticide is a precise and serious term, distinguished from the broader word homicide by identifying the age of the victim and from neonaticide by allowing a broader range of infancy.
nounThe deliberate killing of an infant. Historically, the term was also used in law to distinguish the killing of a newborn child from other forms of homicide.
- The deliberate killing of an infant.
- Historically, the legal term for the killing of a newborn child by its mother, a category treated as less severely than other forms of homicide in some historical legal systems.
"The defendant was charged with infanticide after the death of her newborn child."
"The nineteenth-century medical record described the death as a possible case of infanticide."
"Detectives opened an infanticide investigation after finding evidence that the infant had been deliberately harmed."
The plural is used when referring to multiple instances of the crime or offence.
"The study examines several historical cases of infanticides."
Once a distinct legal category, infanticide now survives mainly in historical and legal contexts.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does infanticide come from?
Infanticide comes from Latin infanticidium, a compound of infans, meaning an infant or child, and caedere, meaning to kill. The English word entered use through Latin, particularly in legal contexts, and its historical legal sense was closely associated with the killing of a newborn child. Its relatives infant, infancy, and infantile preserve the same Latin root through later English borrowing and derivation.
Related word forms
How infanticide is actually used
The term is serious and normally describes an intentional act; it should not be used to mean an accidental infant death. Its historical legal use does not imply that the person who kills an infant is necessarily the mother, a distinction explicitly abandoned in many modern legal systems.
Easily confused with infanticide
Neonaticide refers specifically to the killing of a newborn infant, whereas infanticide has traditionally referred more broadly to the killing of an infant.
Homicide is the general term for the unlawful killing of another person, while infanticide identifies the victim as an infant.