offspring
n.-
1 children or young animals (n.) B2 Upper Intermediatethe children of a person or the young of an animal.
the immediate progeny of a human or animal parent. Often used as a collective singular or plural noun.
ExampleThe birds were busy finding worms to feed their hungry offspring.
ExampleBiologists observed that the female bear was fiercely protective of her offspring during their first winter in the wild.
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2 descendants (n.) C1 Advanced Formalthe people who come from a specific family line over many years.
the descendants of a person or family line, spanning multiple generations.
ExampleThe museum has a portrait of the duke and all his offspring.
ExampleThe legal document specified that the estate should be divided equally among the legitimate offspring of the deceased.
- forebears
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3 a result or product (n.) C2 Proficiency Literarysomething that is created or produced as a result of an effort.
a figurative result, product, or outcome of a particular process or creative effort.
ExampleThe new law was the offspring of many months of hard work.
ExampleThe revolutionary design was the offspring of a unique collaboration between architects and environmental scientists.
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4 a child process (n.) C1 Advanced Technical Computinga computer process that is started by another process.
a process initiated or spawned by a parent process within an operating system.
ExampleIf the main program crashes, the offspring processes might keep running.
ExampleThe system administrator noticed that the server was struggling because too many offspring processes were consuming the available memory.
- child process
- parent process
From Middle English ofspring, from Old English ofspring (“offspring, descendants, posterity”), equivalent to off- + spring. Compare Icelandic afspringur (“offspring”). More at off, spring.