child
[ˈtʃaɪ̯.ɫ̩d]
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.30 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
noun
A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
noun
One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.
noun
The thirteenth Lenormand card.
noun
noun
noun
Example Sentences
- "Go easy on him: he is but a child."
- "Regular chores can be appropriate for children, given age-appropriate limits on difficulty level and time on task."
- "And not just the children, teenagers too. Chuck wants a football, Kathleen a tattoo."
- "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."
- "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."
- "My youngest child is forty-three this year."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tʃaɪld/
- British English: /tʃaɪld/
Usage
Inflected Forms
children (plural)
childer (archaic, dialectal)
childe (alternative, archaic)
chile (alternative, Southern US)
childrens (alternative)
childs (alternative, nonstandard)
childs (present, singular)
childing (participle, present)
childed (participle, past)
childed (past)
Childe (alternative)
Chill (alternative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
kid
boy
and Thesaurus:girl
offspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughter
binary clone
progeny
hybrid
descendant
product
son
daughter
bairn