English · Proverb Candidate

out of the mouths of babes and sucklings

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: out of the mouths of babes (and sucklings)

Sense 1

Meaning · English

Alternative form of out of the mouths of babes.

Where it’s used: Used American English

Sources & notes

Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30 via kaikki.org).

Sense 2

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Wisdom or insight can come from unexpected or inexperienced sources

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Sự khôn ngoan có thể đến từ nguồn không ngờ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: young children

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The child's simple question pointed out the flaw in our plan, proving that wisdom can come out of the mouths of babes and sucklings

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Mouth & tongue

Common questions

What does “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings” mean?

Alternative form of out of the mouths of babes.

Is “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.