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ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Child

/tʃaɪld/ · noun

Meaning

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

Definitions by Sense

  1. (broadly) A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
  2. (with possessive) One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.
  3. (cartomancy) The thirteenth Lenormand card.
  4. (figurative) A figurative offspring, particularly:
  5. Alternative form of childe (“youth of noble birth”).
  6. (mathematics, programming) A subordinate node of a tree.
  7. (figurative) An adult or adolescent with childish or stupid behaviors.
  8. (obsolete, specifically) A female child, a girl.

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.
His adult children visit him yearly.
My husband is such a child, going out with his sled everytime it snows.

Synonyms for child

boyand Thesaurus:girloffspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughterbinary cloneprogenyhybriddescendantproductsondaughterbairnbratchildchitcrumb crunchercrumb crushercrumb grindercrumb snatcherfryjuvenilekidkiddielittle oneminormini-memoppetmunchkinnipperslipsmall fry

Antonyms for child

fathermotherparentadultgrownupgirllittle girlmale childfemale childboy

Related Words

youngsterbabyboylittle girlgirltiddlerminornippershavertiketykekidfrynestlingsmall fryfemale childmale childteenagerteenyoung

Word Forms

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does child mean?

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

What is a synonym for child?

Common synonyms include boy, and Thesaurus:girl, offspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughter, binary clone.

What is the opposite of child?

Possible antonyms include father, mother, parent, adult.

How do you use child in a sentence?

Go easy on him: he is but a child.

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.