scion

American  

[sahy-uhn] / ˈsaɪ ən /

noun

1. a descendant or heir, especially of a wealthy or powerful family.

   She's a familiar face in this Wyoming town, the third-generation scion of a cattle-ranching family.

   The two men were scions of the most powerful dynasties in the world.

   Synonyms:

   progeny, offshoot, issue, child

2. Sometimes cion a shoot or twig, especially one cut for grafting or planting; a cutting.

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scion British  

/ ˈsaɪən /

noun

1. a descendant, heir, or young member of a family

2. a shoot or twig of a plant used to form a graft

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scion Scientific  

/ sī′ən /

1. A detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant, used in grafting.

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Etymology

Origin of scion

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English: “shoot, twig,” from Old French cion, from Frankish kī- (unrecorded) + Old French -on, noun suffix; compare Old English cīnan, Old Saxon kīnan, Old High German chīnan “to sprout,” Old English cīth, Old Saxon kīth “sprout”

Explanation

Use the word scion when talking about a young member of a family that is known to be wealthy, powerful or otherwise important, such as a prince, heiress or the children of, say, the President. Scion sounds a little bit like son, which is helpful because it almost always means the son, daughter or descendant of a rich or prominent family. Its earliest examples were used to refer to the young shoots of larger, older plants. It's not surprising, then, that over the centuries its meaning has shifted to include the human offspring of certain well-established families. These days it's invariably used to talk about a person such as Prince William or, say, the late John F. Kennedy, Jr. — both of whom are or were scions of their respective families.

Example Sentences

Alex Murdaugh, 57, scion of an elite family of judges and attorneys, was denied a fair trial because a court clerk influenced the jury, the South Carolina Supreme Court said.

From Barron's • May 13, 2026

Ahmed provides his haunted, intelligent eyes to convey the inner torment of this Hamlet, the grieving scion of a wealthy family of real estate developers.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026

In a series of 2016 emails included in the Justice Department documents, Epstein appeared to arrange for Axel to help smooth the path to Columbia for Alice de Rothschild, a scion of the banking family.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

But Paramount, managed by scion David Ellison, has repeatedly cried foul, saying its cash bid for all of Warner Bros.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2026

In France, Prince Louis-Victor de Broglie, the scion of a ducal family, found that certain anomalies in the behavior of electrons disappeared when one regarded them as waves.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Related Words

• heir