child

child

See also: Child and Child.

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English child, from Old English ċild, from Proto-West Germanic *kilþ, *kelþ, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz (“womb; fetus”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵelt- (“womb”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, amass”).

Cognate with Danish kuld (“brood, litter”), Swedish kull (“brood, litter”), Icelandic kelta, kjalta (“lap”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 (kilþei, “womb”), Sanskrit जर्त (jarta), जर्तु (jártu, “vulva”).

Alternative forms

Noun

child (plural children or (dialectal or archaic) childer)

  2. (broadly) A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
    Synonym: kid
    Hyponyms: newborn, neonate, preteen, adolescent, tweenager, teenager, tween, teen, preadult
    Go easy on him: he is but a child.
    • 2003 Powerpuff Girls: 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (narration)
      And not just the children, teenagers too. Chuck wants a football, Kathleen a tattoo.
    • 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[1], volume 188, number 26, page 19:
      It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. […] It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child's life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries.
    • 2025 April 27, Dakin Andone, “3 children who are US citizens — including one with cancer — deported with their mothers, lawyers and advocacy groups say”, in CNN‎[2]:
      In one case, a mother was deported and took her 2-year-old child with her, while the other involves another mother deported and her 4- and 7-year-old children went with her, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Project, among other organizations, said in a news release Friday.
    2. (pediatrics, sometimes, in a stricter sense) A youth aged 1 to 9 years, whereas neonates are aged 0 to 1 month, infants are aged 1 to 12 months, and adolescents are aged 10 to 20 years.
      Hypernym: kid
      Coordinate terms: newborn, neonate, infant, adolescent, teenager, teen, boy, girl
    Regular chores can be appropriate for children, given age-appropriate limits on difficulty level and time on task.
  4. (with possessive) One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.
    My youngest child is forty-three this year.
    His adult children visit him yearly.
  6. (cartomancy) The thirteenth Lenormand card.
  8. (figurative) A figurative offspring, particularly:
    1. A person considered a product of a place or culture, a member of a tribe or culture, regardless of age.
      the children of Israel
      He is a child of his times.
      • 1984, Mary Jane Matz, The Many Lives of Otto Kahn: A Biography, page 5:
        For more than forty years, he preached the creed of art and beauty. He was heir to the ancient wisdom of Israel, a child of Germany, a subject of Great Britain, later an American citizen, but in truth a citizen of the world.
      • 2009, Edward John Moreton Dunsany, Tales of Wonder, page 64:
        Plash-Goo was of the children of the giants, whose sire was Uph. And the lineage of Uph had dwindled in bulk for the last five hundred years, till the giants were now no more than fifteen foot high; but Uph ate elephants […]
    3. Anything derived from or caused by something.
    5. (computing) A data item, process, or object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another.
      The child node then stores the actual data of the parent node.
      • 2011, John Mongan, Noah Kindler, Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed:
        The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).
  10. Alternative form of childe (“youth of noble birth”).
  12. (mathematics, programming) A subordinate node of a tree.
  13. (figurative) An adult or adolescent with childish or stupid behaviors.
    My husband is such a child, going out with his sled everytime it snows.
  15. (obsolete, specifically) A female child, a girl.
Synonyms
Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “offspring”): father, mother, parent
  • (antonym(s) of “person below the age of adulthood”): adult
  • (antonym(s) of “data item, process or object in a subordinate role”): parent
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English childen, from the noun child.

Verb

child (third-person singular simple present childs, present participle childing, simple past and past participle childed)

  1. (archaic, ambitransitive) To give birth; to beget or procreate.
Translations

Further reading

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Old English ċild, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /t͡ʃiːld/

Noun

child (plural children or childre or (rare) childres or (early) child)

  1. A child, (person who has not reached adulthood):
    1. A baby, infant, toddler; a person in infancy.
    2. (Christianity) The Christ child; Jesus as a child.
  2. A young male, especially a hireling or squire.
  3. The young of animals or plants.
  4. An offspring, one of one's progeny.
  5. A childish or stupid individual.
  6. (figurative) A follower of a religion (usually with the religion in the genitive preposing it)
  7. (rare) A result or product.

Declension

Declension of child
singular plural
(nominative/accusative) child childre, children
genitive childes childres, childrene
dative childe1 —

1Optional; mostly fossilised after Early Middle English.

Descendants

  • English: child
  • Scots: child; chield

References

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