ENGLISH
REFERENCE

offspring

n. C / U
C1 Advanced Oxford US //ˈɔfsˌpɹɪŋ// UK //ˈɒfspɹɪŋ// off·spring

n. the children of a person or the young of an animal. You use this word when you want to sound more formal or scientific than saying 'kids' or 'babies'.

n. the immediate descendants of a person, animal, or plant. Often used in biological or legal contexts to refer to progeny collectively.


SIMPLE

The birds are busy feeding their hungry offspring.

CONTEXTUAL

The study tracked the health of the original participants and their offspring over several decades.

COMPLEX

In evolutionary biology, an organism's fitness is often measured by the number of viable offspring it produces that survive to reproductive age themselves.

Synonyms
Origin

From Middle English ofspring, from Old English ofspring (“offspring, descendants, posterity”), equivalent to off- + spring. Compare Icelandic afspringur (“offspring”). More at off, spring.

Usage

The word is often treated as an invariant plural, meaning the form 'offspring' is used for both one child and many children.

Pitfall

She has four offsprings.She has four offspring.The word 'offspring' is usually an uncountable or invariant noun; adding an 's' for the plural is generally considered incorrect in standard English.

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