offspring
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English ofspring, from Old English ofspring (“offspring, descendants, posterity”), equivalent to off- + spring. Compare Icelandic afspringur (“offspring”). More at off, spring.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɒfspɹɪŋ/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈɔfspɹɪŋ/, /ˈɑfspɹɪŋ/, enPR: äfʹsprĭng
- Rhymes: -ɒfspɹɪŋ, -ɔfspɹɪŋ, -ɑfspɹɪŋ
Noun[edit]
offspring (plural offspring or offsprings)
- A person's daughter or son; a person's child.
- Any of a person's descendants, including of further generations.
- An animal or plant's progeny or young.
- 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
- In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.
- (figuratively) Anything produced; the result of an entity's efforts.
- Artists often treasure their works as their immortal offspring.
- (computing) A process launched by another process.
Usage notes[edit]
- The plural offsprings is mainly used for the computing sense.
Synonyms[edit]
- (daughter(s) and/or son(s)): baby/babies, child/children, fruit of one's loins, issue (plural only), get, kid/kids
- (all descendants): binary clone, descendants, fruit of one's loins, get, lineage, progeny, seed
Antonyms[edit]
- (daughter(s) and/or son(s)): genitor (rare), parent, progenitor, father (male), mother (female)
- (descendants): ancestors, forbears/forebears, forefathers
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
singular offspring (male, female or sex unspecified)
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plural or collective offspring (only males, only females, both sexes or sex unspecified)
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singular offspring, animal's or plant's progeny
plural or collective offspring, animal's or plant's progeny
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something produced
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computing: process launched by another process
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms prefixed with off-
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɒfspɹɪŋ
- Rhymes:English/ɒfspɹɪŋ/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɔfspɹɪŋ
- Rhymes:English/ɔfspɹɪŋ/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɑfspɹɪŋ
- Rhymes:English/ɑfspɹɪŋ/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English indeclinable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with quotations
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- en:Computing
- en:Family