Child Definition

Contents

• 1 English
  • 1.1 Alternative forms
  • 1.2 Etymology
  • 1.3 Pronunciation
  • 1.4 Noun
    • 1.4.1 Synonyms
    • 1.4.2 Antonyms
    • 1.4.3 References
    • 1.4.4 Derived terms
    • 1.4.5 Related terms
    • 1.4.6 See also
    • 1.4.7 Translations

English

Alternative forms

• childe (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old English ċild (“child, infant, youth of gentle birth”), from Proto-Germanic *kildiz (“child in the womb, fruit of the womb, child”), from Proto-Indo-European *g(')elt- (“womb”). Cognate with Danish kuld (“brood, litter”), Swedish kull (“brood, litter”), Icelandic kelta, kjalta (“lap”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 (kilþei, “womb”), Sanskrit (jarta), (jártu, “vulva”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: chīld, IPA: /tʃaɪld/, SAMPA: /tSaIld/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪld

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.

Synonyms

• (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

Antonyms

• (daughter or son): father, mother, parent
• (person below the age of adulthood): adult
• (data item, process or object in a subordinate role): parent

References

• Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (accessed November 2007).
• American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company (2003).

Derived terms

Related terms

• chield, chiel
• childe
• Childermas

See also

• orling

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