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Glite Dictionary
SGA infant

SGA infant

7.6
A newborn much smaller and lighter than other babies born at the same stage of pregnancy
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : recién nacido SGA
  • The doctor explained that the baby was an SGA infant and would need special monitoring.

Examples

  • Research shows that nutrition is especially important for SGA infants during their first year.

  • Premature and SGA infants often face greater challenges in early development.

  • The SGA infant was stable.

  • Look at that SGA infant!

  • Research shows that nutrition is especially important for SGA infants during their first year.

  • The doctor explained that the baby was an SGA infant and would need special monitoring.

  • Premature and SGA infants often face greater challenges in early development.

Synonyms

small-for-gestational-age infant
vsSGA infant
  • Specialized
6.9

A baby who is much smaller and lighter than usual for their pregnancy length

has identical meaning but uses a short abbreviation instead of the full phrase

Surface Forms

SGA infant singular
SGA infants plural

Morphology

SGA + infant

SGA is a medical initialism (small for gestational age) rather than a lexical word whose meaning can be compositionally combined with 'infant'; a B1 learner who only knows the surface forms would not be able to derive the clinical meaning from the constituents. This is a domain-specific label requiring specialized knowledge, so the phrase is not transparently interpretable from its parts.

Etymology

SGA infant comes from medical growth charts where SGA stands for 'small for gestational age' and infant means baby. It paints the picture of a baby who is smaller than usual for the number of weeks in the mother's womb, so the phrase is used to say 'a baby who is smaller than expected'.