scion
/ˈsaɪ.ən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.03 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A descendant, especially a first-generation descendant of a distinguished family.
noun
A guardian.
Example Sentences
- "No senate seats in council for the dead; no scion of a time honoured dynasty pants to rule over the inhabitants of a charnel house; the general's hand is cold, and the soldier has his untimely grave dug in his native fields, unhonoured, though in youth."
- "Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends."
- "It was said to him that those people were the scions of Zion."
- "He could show his parents Eliot, scion of Derek Moulthorp, and then how could they say he was throwing his life away?"
- "It also made her the target of angry derision back in South Korea, where Ms. Cho is the scion of one of the wealthy families that control much of South Korea’s export-driven economy."
- "Her father, Carter Burden Sr., was a handsome scion of the Vanderbilt dynasty."
Etymology
From Middle English sion, sioun, syon, scion, cion, from Old French cion, ciun, cyon, sion, from Frankish *kīþō, *kīþ, from Proto-Germanic *kīþô, *kīþą, *kīþaz (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *geye- (“to split open, sprout”), same source as Old English ċīþ (“a young shoot; sprout; germ; sprig”), Old Saxon kīth (“sprout; germ”), Old High German kīdi (“offshoot; sprout; germ”). See also French scion and Picard chion. Doublet of chit.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsaɪ.ən/
- British English: /ˈsaɪən/