offspring
Americannoun
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children or young of a particular parent or progenitor.
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a child or animal in relation to the parent or parents.
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a descendant.
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descendants collectively.
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the product, result, or effect of something.
the offspring of an inventive mind.
noun
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the immediate descendant or descendants of a person, animal, etc; progeny
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a product, outcome, or result
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of offspring
First recorded before 950; Middle English; Old English ofspring; see off, of 1, spring (in the sense “to descend from”)
Explanation
Puppies are the offspring, or children, of a mamma dog. You're the offspring of your biological parents. This is basically another word for children. Baby horses, gorillas, lizards, and humans are all offspring. A woman who gives birth to quadruplets suddenly has a lot of offspring. But this word isn't limited to biological creations — you could say that a project you've been laboring over is your offspring. Albert Einstein's offspring included many groundbreaking theories, and the scientists who followed up on Einstein's ideas are considered his intellectual offspring.
Vocabulary lists containing offspring
It's All in the Family
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Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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"The Origin of Species by Natural Selection" by Charles Darwin: Essential Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The helpers in a group are often offspring from earlier years who stayed with their parents after growing up.
From Slate • May 10, 2026
Peter Nowell, a pathologist, argued in 1976 that cancers arise from a single mutant cell and then evolve, as offspring acquire new mutations and compete for dominance—a prediction that single-cell sequencing has dramatically confirmed.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026
The LV monogram was designed in 1896 by Georges Vuitton, the offspring of the brand’s namesake founder.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026
"Our study shows that mostly we recover normal meiosis and complete sperm function, and more importantly, that the offspring are completely normal," Cohen said.
From Science Daily • Apr. 7, 2026
She felt kindly toward them, so she gave them enough offspring to be happy.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
