progeny

American  

[proj-uh-nee] / ˈprɒdʒ ə ni /

noun

• progeny,
  plural
• progenies
  plural

1. a descendant or offspring, as a child, plant, or animal.

2. such descendants or offspring collectively.

3. something that originates or results from something else; outcome; issue.

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progeny British  

/ ˈprɒdʒɪnɪ /

noun

1. the immediate descendant or descendants of a person, animal, etc

2. a result or outcome

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• progenies
  plural
• progeny
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of progeny

1250–1300; Middle English progenie < Middle French < Latin prōgeniēs offspring, equivalent to prō- pro- ¹ + gen-, base of gignere to beget (akin to kin ) + -iēs feminine noun suffix

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Explanation

Progeny means "offspring" or "children." You and your brothers are the progeny of your parents, and your cat's new litter of kittens is her progeny. Synonyms for progeny include descendants, product, and offspring, so you're also your grandparents' and great-grandparents' progeny. And, if your pet goat has babies every spring, you'll get to raise dozens of her progeny. Plants have progeny too — blow the fluffy seeds of a dandelion in your yard and its progeny can multiply, summer after summer, until your lawn is full of cheerful yellow flowers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

progeny progenies

Unyoked from racial prejudices and prohibitions, Eston’s progeny prospered.

From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026

And Standard Oil’s progeny formed the core of the “Seven Sisters” oil majors that divvied up among themselves the Middle East’s resources until the 1970s.

From Barron's ● May 7, 2026

“It was an odd pairing: Harold Macmillan, the inhibited, repressed publisher’s son, and Bob Boothby, the warm, witty progeny of an Edinburgh banker,” writes Lynne Olson.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025

In any other sport, the progeny of a former star player ascending to the highest level would be especially noteworthy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2025

That is, farmers initially selected seeds of certain wild plant individuals to bring into their gardens and then chose certain progeny seeds each year to grow in the next year’s garden.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

The series wisely taps some familiar faces from Bravo shows of yore, tossing “Housewives” progenies Ariana Biermann, Riley Burruss, Gia Giudice and Brooks Marks into the batter before adding a few special ingredients.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2025

Symbolically, though, the first of Johnson’s hallmark progenies graced a route that bendies had snaked along and where the Routemaster had met its end – the number 38, which links Hackney with Victoria.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2015

But more than just being little progenies, the Smith children combine their beyond-their-years giftedness with a truly kid-like apparent pleasure in what they do.

From Salon ● Oct. 19, 2010

The prolific mothers of several families of the swinish species, with their squealing progenies, gathered around us, in full expectation, doubtless, of the dispensation of an extra ration, which we had not to give.

From What I Saw in California by Edwin Bryant

The father and grandfather and uncle and great-uncles, the great-grandfather and great-great-uncles, with all their progenies, lay before him in a maze of entanglement which it would be his business to unravel.

From Birds of Prey by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

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