milk tooth
noun
: a temporary tooth of a young mammal that in human dentition includes four incisors, two canines, and four molars in each jaw : baby tooth, deciduous tooth
Whereas most mammals retain their milk teeth for months, some bat species lose these teeth soon after birth and have adult dentition even before they are weaned.—
Rick A. Adams and Scott C. Pedersen
Rick A. Adams and Scott C. Pedersen… a restless, rambunctious boy, who at the beginning of the year had lost two front milk teeth that still showed no signs of being replaced by adult ones.—Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge DanticatExamples of milk tooth in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
One set appeared to be baby teeth, also called milk teeth, while the others were adult teeth.
—Katie Cottingham, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Aug. 2024
As Ana Cristina Herreros explains, long ago in Spain children flung their milk teeth up onto the roofs of their houses so that a Tooth Mouse might collect them.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, wsj.com, 7 Apr. 2023
Your kid’s milk teeth: the cost of playing the tooth fairy (ten dollars for the first tooth, five dollars for teeth two to four and molars, two dollars for the rest).
—Francesca Carington, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2023
Finlayson said the team had also found the milk tooth of a Neanderthal around 4 years old, and hypothesized that they could have been dragged into the cave by a hyaena.
—Jeevan Ravindran, CNN, 30 Sep. 2021
Relatives came in and out, helping with the children and watching as Youssef grew milk teeth and Samer went to school and adjusted to life in a strange country.
—Greg Betza, Washington Post, 1 May 2018
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Katie Cottingham, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Aug. 2024
As Ana Cristina Herreros explains, long ago in Spain children flung their milk teeth up onto the roofs of their houses so that a Tooth Mouse might collect them.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, wsj.com, 7 Apr. 2023
Your kid’s milk teeth: the cost of playing the tooth fairy (ten dollars for the first tooth, five dollars for teeth two to four and molars, two dollars for the rest).
—Francesca Carington, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2023
Finlayson said the team had also found the milk tooth of a Neanderthal around 4 years old, and hypothesized that they could have been dragged into the cave by a hyaena.
—Jeevan Ravindran, CNN, 30 Sep. 2021
Relatives came in and out, helping with the children and watching as Youssef grew milk teeth and Samer went to school and adjusted to life in a strange country.
—Greg Betza, Washington Post, 1 May 2018
Cite this Entry
“Milk tooth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/milk%20tooth. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.
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