milk teeth

Meaning

1. 1nounplural

   The first set of small teeth that a child grows and later loses, replaced by permanent adult teeth.

   Grammar: Always plural: one milk tooth, many milk teeth.

   Patterns

   • lose your milk teeth
   • milk teeth fall out

   My little brother lost two milk teeth last month.

   Dentists say it is still important to brush milk teeth carefully.

   Her milk teeth began to wobble when she turned six.

Common combinations

lose milk teeth

Most children begin to lose milk teeth around the age of six.

wobbly milk tooth

He kept wiggling a wobbly milk tooth with his tongue.

milk teeth fall out

Milk teeth fall out to make room for permanent ones.

brush milk teeth

Parents should help toddlers brush their milk teeth twice a day.

set of milk teeth

A full set of milk teeth has twenty teeth.

Synonyms and how they differ

baby teeth

It means the same thing and is the usual American phrase, while milk teeth sounds more British.

primary teeth

This is the formal term used by dentists, and it sounds clinical in everyday talk.

deciduous teeth

This is a technical medical term, mostly found in textbooks, for the same set of teeth.

Opposites

Word family

milk tooth noun

a single first tooth

tooth noun

a hard white part of the mouth used for chewing

teething noun

the stage when a baby's first teeth appear

teethe verb

to grow the first teeth

Commonly confused: milk teeth or wisdom teeth?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “milk teeth”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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