child
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: chīld
ipa: /t͡ʃaɪld/
ipa: [t͡ʃaɪ̯ɫd]
ipa: [ˈt͡ʃaɪ̯.ɫ̩d]
ipa: [t͡ʃəɪ̯(ə)ɫd]
rhymes: -aɪld
Forms: form: children
form: childer
form: childe
form: chile
form: childrens
form: childs
Etymology: 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”).
Senses: examples: text: Go easy on him: he is but a child.
text: And not just the children, teenagers too. Chuck wants a football, Kathleen a tattoo.
ref: 2003 Powerpuff Girls: 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (narration)
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: Regular chores can be appropriate for children, given age-appropriate limits on difficulty level and time on task.
synonyms: kid
glosses: A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
synonyms: kid
glosses: A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
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.
hypernyms: kid
coordinate_terms: newborn
neonate
infant
adolescent
teenager
teen
boy
girl
raw_tags: in a stricter sense
examples: text: My youngest child is forty-three this year.
text: His adult children visit him yearly.
glosses: One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.
raw_tags: with possessive
topics: cartomancy
human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
glosses: The thirteenth Lenormand card.
examples: text: the children of Israel
text: He is a child of his times.
text: 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.
ref: 1984, Mary Jane Matz, The Many Lives of Otto Kahn: A Biography, page 5:
text: 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[…]
ref: 2009, Edward John Moreton Dunsany, Tales of Wonder, page 64:
glosses: A figurative offspring
A person considered a product of a place or culture, a member of a tribe or culture, regardless of age.
examples: text: Poverty, disease, and despair are the children of war.
ref: 1991, Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children:
glosses: A figurative offspring
Anything derived from or caused by something.
examples: text: The child node then stores the actual data of the parent node.
text: The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).
ref: 2011, John Mongan, Noah Kindler, Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A figurative offspring
A data item, process, or object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another.
glosses: Alternative form of childe (“youth of noble birth”).
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: A subordinate node of a tree.
examples: text: A boy, or a Childe I wonder?
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 288, column 2:
glosses: A female child, a girl.
Synonyms: word: boy
word: and Thesaurus:girl
sense: offspring
word: offspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughter
word: binary clone
word: progeny
word: hybrid
sense: descendant
word: descendant
sense: product of a place or era
word: product
sense: product of a place or era
word: son
sense: product of a place or era
word: daughter
word: bairn
word: brat
word: child
word: chit
word: crumb cruncher
word: crumb crusher
word: crumb grinder
word: crumb snatcher
word: fry
word: juvenile
word: kid
word: kiddie
word: little one
word: minor
word: mini-me
word: moppet
word: munchkin
word: nipper
word: slip
word: small fry
word: sprog
word: sprout
word: tart
word: tot
word: tyke
word: youngling
word: youngster
word: young'un
word: youth
word: crib lizard
word: crotch critter
word: crotch dropping
word: crotch fruit
word: crotch goblin
word: crotch monkey
word: crotchling
word: cum cheese
word: cum pet
word: cunt dropping
word: fucklet
word: fuck trophy
word: hump dumpling
word: pet sperm
word: semen demon
word: shitling
word: sperm blossom
word: sperm buttercup
word: sperm bubbles
word: bitchling
word: terence
Hypernyms: word: person
Hyponyms: word: baby
word: babe
word: infant
word: neonate
word: newborn
word: toddler
word: ankle-biter
word: preschooler
word: squirt
word: rugrat
word: preteen
word: tween
word: tweenie
word: tweenager
word: teenager
word: adolescent
word: teen
word: boy
word: girl
word: schoolchild
word: poppet
word: imp
word: monkey
word: scamp
word: swapling
word: whippersnapper
word: urchin
word: goldensprog
word: spoiled brat
Derived terms: abandoned child syndrome
a burnt child dreads the fire
antichild
barrel child
battered child syndrome
belchild
biochild
birthchild
black child
boomerang child
boychild
brainchild
butterfly child
call someone everything but a child of God
Chester
child abuse
child abuser
child actor
childbearer
child-bearing
childbearing
child-bed
childbed
child benefit
child birth
child-birth
childbirth
child bride
child-bride
child care
childcare
childcarer
childcaring
child carrier
child car seat
child category
child-centered
child-crowing
child diddler
child-directed speech
child endangerment
child-free
child-fucker
childfucker
child-great
child groom
childhood
childie
childification
child-in-law
childish
childism
childkind
child labor
child labour
child language
childless
child lifter
child-like
childlike
childline
childling
child lock
childlore
childlove
childlover
child-mind
childmind
child minder
childminder
child molestation
child molester
child-nature
child neglect
childness
child node
child of the kitchen
child of the manse
child porn
child pornography
child prodigy
childproof
child prostitution
childraiser
childraising
childrearer
child-rearing
childrearing
child restraint
childsafe
child safety seat
child seat
child sex abuse
child sex crime
child sex tourism
child sexual abuse
child sexual abuse material
childship
child soldier
childspeak
child's play
child support
childtime
child toucher
child-toucher
child trafficking
childwear
choirchild
chomo
chrisom child
cowchild
dog-child
dreamchild
elf-child
feral child
flower child
foster child
get with child
girlchild
glass child
god-child
godchild
golden child
grandchild
grand-child
heavy with child
home child
honey child
honey chile
Indigo child
inner child
innocent as the child unborn
International Day of the Girl Child
iPad child
it is a wise child that knows his own father
it takes a village to raise a child
latch-key child
latchkey child
lovechild
love-child
love child
maid child
maid-child
man child
man-child
manchild
merchild
middle child
minor child
moonchild
natural child
nonchild
once a man, twice a child
once a woman, twice a child
one-child policy
only child
password child
poster child
pretermitted child
problem child
saleschild
schoolchild
semichild
single child
snowchild
snowflake child
sooner child
spare the rod and spoil the child
street child
subchild
superchild
sweet summer child
thalidomide child
the burnt child dreads the fire
the burnt child fears the fire
twichild
two child problem
unborn child
unchild
Velcro child
war child
well-child clinic
whole child
wild child
with child
wolf-child
woman child
woman-child
womanchild
wombchild
womb-child
wonderchild
Related terms: word: chield
word: Child
word: childe
word: Childermas
word: orling
word: relative
word: sweetheart
word: :Category:Children