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Glite Dictionary
👶 One of five babies 5️⃣ A group of five 💻 Five data items
quintuplet

quintuplet

4 6.5
A child born at the same time as four other children to the same mother
  • noun
  • /kwɪnˈtʌplɪt/
translation icon : quintillizo
  • A woman in Houston gave birth to five healthy quintuplets last week.
  • Dionne quintuplets
  • quintuplets born
  • the first quintuplets

Examples

  • I too am praying for this family of quintuplets.

    Blog text (23)

  • I am the woman with the quintuplets.

    After Office Hours (1935)

  • No one big has come out of these parts since the Dionne quintuplets.

    Roadkill (1989)

  • During 1987, a young woman gave birth, without the aid of fertility drugs, to quintuplets in a hospital in Enugu, then the capital of Anambra State.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Five little babies—a set of quintuplets—are clinging to life in a neonatal intensive care unit in Dallas.

    Blog text (23)

  • The Dionne sisters, born in Canada in 1934, were famous as the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

  • Consider the challenges faced by parents of quintuplets, who must care for five newborns at once.

Synonyms

quint
vsquintuplet
12 9.2

One of five babies born to the same mother at the same time

adds that the five are from a single pregnancy
quin
vsquintuplet
1 9.9

One of five babies born at the same time to the same mother

adds that the five are from a single pregnancy

How Many

octuplet
  • Specialized
4 6.7
septuplet
5 7.5
sextuplet
4 5.2
quintuplet
4 6.5
quadruplet
4 6.0
triplet
29 3.7
twin
587 1.0

Surface Forms

quintuplet singular
quintuplets plural

Morphology

quintuplet = quint (semi-transparent) = quint + uplet

The root 'quint' clearly indicates five, but 'uplet' is not a standalone English word, making the full meaning less obvious.

Etymology

Quintuplet comes from the Latin root quinque, meaning 'five'. It is related to the music word quintet for five players, so a quintuplet is one of five babies born at the same time.