Biologically, a child (plural: children) is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. "Child" may also describe a relationship with a parent or, metaphorically, authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties".

The term "child" is sometimes used as a generic term for sons and daughters of any age, with the clarification "adult child" where appropriate. Such people are legally adults, not children, and this article does not apply to them.

Contents

• 1 Legal, biological, and social definitions
  • 1.1 As a non-adult
• 2 Attitudes toward children
• 3 Socialization
• 4 Age of responsibility
• 5 Child mortality
• 6 One-child policy
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Noun

child (children or (dialectal) childer or (nonstandard) childs or (humorous or non-standard) childrens)

1. A daughter or son.

   Her child is in 1st grade.

   My youngest child is forty-three.

2. A person who is below the age of adulthood; a minor (person who is below the legal age of responsibility or accountability).
   • 1989, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, PART I, Article 1

     For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.

3. (computing) A data item, process or object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another data item, process or object.

   The child node then stores the actual data of the parent node.

• (daughter or son): boy, fruit of one's loins, girl, kid, offspring
• (young person): bairn, boy, brat, girl, kid, lad, lass
• See also Wikisaurus:child

Quotes regarding children.

See also: Childhood

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
• 2 Unsourced
• 3 See also
• 4 External links