stepchild
Americannoun
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stepchildren
plural
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a child of one's spouse by a previous marriage.
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any person, organization, affiliate, project, etc., that is not properly treated, supported, or appreciated.
This agency is the stepchild when appropriations are handed out.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of stepchild
before 1000; Middle English; Old English stēopcild. See step-, child
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.
See Examples For:
An afterthought if not a redheaded stepchild, though expect affronted fellow media outlets to freak out because of what NBC News once was, not what it is.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
“You don’t want to be the poor stepchild if you have only $350,000 and the adviser’s minimum is $1 million,” Krueger said.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 10, 2026
West Sacramento has long been the region’s scrawny stepchild of a municipality.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025
The new proposals, which follow a review, maintain the stepchild rule, though NHS bosses insist no decisions have been made.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2024
Virtually the same applies in Egyptology, in which the study of the Ptolemaic “late period” has long been the neglected stepchild of a discipline engrossed by the Rameseses and Thut- moses of high antiquity.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
A stepmother or stepfather may promise their spouse and stepchildren the world while both parties are living, but can change their mind after the death of their spouse.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
At the time, she had a five-month-old baby and two stepchildren.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
After a fall shatters his ankle, his stepchildren dump him with his daughter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
Dwana is also buried there, as are Pauline’s children, Pusser’s stepchildren, who were cremated but whose ashes lie in the Pusser plot.
From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2025
Some folks have no sons or daughters, or husbands or wives, and hence no stepchildren or children-in-law.
From Hortus Vitae Essays on the Gardening of Life by Lee, Vernon
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.
