child
Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections
Definitions & Usage
(broadly) A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
(with possessive) One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.
(cartomancy) The thirteenth Lenormand card.
(figurative) A figurative offspring, particularly:
Alternative form of childe (“youth of noble birth”).
(mathematics, programming) A subordinate node of a tree.
(figurative) An adult or adolescent with childish or stupid behaviors.
(obsolete, specifically) A female child, a girl.
(archaic, ambitransitive) To give birth; to beget or procreate.
Notable Literary & Historical Quotes
“And not just the children, teenagers too. Chuck wants a football, Kathleen a tattoo.”
— 2003 Powerpuff Girls: 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (narration)
“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.”
— 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19:
“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.”
— 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: