• (RP, America) enPR: chīld, IPA: /t͡ʃaɪld/, [t͡ʃaɪ̯ɫd], [ˈt͡ʃaɪ̯.ɫ̩d]

From Middle English child, from Old English ċild, from Proto-West Germanic *kilþ, *kelþ, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵelt-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gel-.

Cognate with Danish kuld, Swedish kull, Icelandic kelta, kjalta ("lap"), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹, Sanskrit जर्त, जर्तु ("vulva").

child (plural children)

1. (broadly) A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).

   Synonyms: 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.

   1. (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.

      Regular chores can be appropriate for both children and adolescents, given age-appropriate limits on difficulty level and time on task.

      Hypernyms: kid

      Coordinate terms: newborn, neonate, infant, adolescent, teenager, teen

2. (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.

3. (cartomancy) The thirteenth Lenormand card.
4. (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.

   2. Anything derived from or caused by something.
   3. (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).

5. Alternative form of childe
6. (mathematics, programming) A subordinate node of a tree.
7. (obsolete, specifically) A female child, a girl.
   • 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:

     A boy, or a Childe I wonder?

• (young person) See Thesaurus:child, Thesaurus:boy, and Thesaurus:girl
• (offspring) See offspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughter, binary clone, progeny, hybrid
• (descendant) See descendant
• (product of a place or era) product, son (male), daughter (female)

• (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

• chield
• Child
• childe
• Childermas

• French: enfant
• German: Kind
• Italian: bambino, bambina, figlio, figlia
• Portuguese: filho, filha, criança
• Russian: ребёнок
• Spanish: hijo, hija, niño, niña

• French: enfant
• German: Kind
• Italian: bambino, bambina
• Portuguese: criança, menino, menina, miúdo (Portugal)
• Russian: ребёнок
• Spanish: niño, niña, infante

• Portuguese: filho
• Russian: доче́рний

From Middle English childen, from the noun child.

child (childs, present participle childing; simple past and past participle childed)

1. (archaic, ambitransitive) To give birth; to beget or procreate.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC ↗, stanza 17, page 512 ↗:

     My liefe (ſayd ſhe) ye know, that long ygo,
     Whileſt ye in durance dwelt, ye to me gaue
     A little mayde, the which ye chylded tho ;
     The ſame againe if now ye liſt to haue,
     The ſame is yonder Lady, whom high God did ſaue.

   • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Eighteenth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC ↗, stanza 26, page 320 ↗:

     And from his fertill hollow wombe forth ran,
     (Clad in rare weedes and ſtrange habiliment)
     A Nymph, for age able to goe to man,
     An hundreth plants beſide (euen in his ſight)
     Childed an hundreth Nymphes, ſo great, ſo dight: […]

   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene v]:

     […] But then the mind much ſufferance doth or'e ſcip,
     When griefe hath mates,​and bearing fellowſhip :
     How light and portable my paine ſeemes now,
     When that which makes me bend, makes the King bow,
     He childed as I fathered,​Tom away,
     Marke the high noyſes and thy ſelfe bewray, […]

child

1. Alternative case form of child often used when referring to God (Jesus) or another important child who is understood from context.
   • 2012, Charles M. Stang, Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite, →ISBN, page 62:

     This emendation is echoed in Thekla's reunion with Paul outside the city, where she offers the following prayer of thanksgiving: God, King and Blessed Creator of everything, and Father of your great and only begotten Child, I give you thanks.

1. Surname.