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.

---

progeny British  

/ ˈprɒdʒɪnɪ /

noun

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

2. a result or outcome

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• progenies
  plural
• progeny
  plural

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

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

The mismatch—the strictures of the business world and a galloping imagination—launched Kafka and his innumerable artistic progeny, which continue all the way to today’s deadpan sitcoms detailing strange doings at the office.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

Pulte’s father, Mark, like others of the patriarch’s progeny, has kept a hand in the grandfather’s work, including funding religious charities with Fellowship ties.

From Salon ● Jun. 9, 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

They are interested in and worry about their progeny, but are just as, if not more, concerned with their own problems and lives, which are continuing to unfold in very real, complicated and interesting ways.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026

From their own standpoint, the organelles might be viewed as having learned early how to have the best of possible worlds, with least effort and risk to themselves and their progeny.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

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

One is his native district, which is called Solum Cariense: the other is the royal ancestry to which his family had a just and ancient claim: "Regia progenies alto de sanguine Machar".

From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, June 1865 by Various

"Why are the poor hungry?—Why do not your flocks and herds multiply and increase?—Why do ye maltreat the sire and kill the mother of many progenies."

From Another World Fragments from the Star City of Montalluyah by Benjamin Lumley