🇵🇹Portuguese Source WordCode: PT

Criança trocada

Pronunciation / Transliteration: kɾiˈɐ̃sɐ ˈtɾokadɐ

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Changeling/ˈtʃeɪn.dʒəl.ɪŋ/
nounCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #15000 frequency
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🇵🇹 Example Sentence in Portuguese:

"Na história, a criança trocada era na verdade uma criatura mágica."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A child believed to have been secretly substituted by fairies for the parents' real child.

    "In folklore, the mother feared her baby was a changeling left by the fairies."
  2. 2

    A person or thing that is deceptive or not what it seems.

    "The changeling in the story turned out to be a clever imp in disguise."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

The term 'changeling' originates from Middle English 'changeling', derived from the Old English 'ceald' meaning 'to change'. Historically, it referred to a child believed to have been secretly substituted by fairies, reflecting cultural beliefs about supernatural beings and child-rearing practices in medieval Europe.

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