son
noun
a male child or person in relation to his parents.
son
1 American
[suhn]
/ sʌn /
noun
-
sons
plural
-
a male child or person in relation to his parents.
-
a male child or person adopted as a son; a person in the legal position of a son.
-
any male descendant.
a son of the Aztecs.
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a son-in-law.
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a person related as if by ties of sonship.
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a male person looked upon as the product or result of particular agencies, forces, influences, etc..
a true son of the soil.
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a familiar term of address to a man or boy from an older person, an ecclesiastic, etc.
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the Son, the second person of the Trinity; Jesus Christ.
son-
2
American
son
1
British
/ sʌn /
noun
-
a male offspring; a boy or man in relation to his parents
-
a male descendant
-
(often capital) a familiar term of address for a boy or man
-
a male from a certain country, place, etc, or one closely connected with a certain environment
a son of the circus
a son of the manse
Son
2
British
/ sʌn /
noun
son
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of son
before 900; Middle English sone, Old English sunu; cognate with Dutch zoon, German Sohn, Old Norse sunr, sonr, Gothic sunus, Lithuanian sūnùs, Sanskrit sūnus; akin to Greek huiós
Explanation
Anyone can call a boy son, but technically, your son has to be your male child. If you're male, you are your parents' son. Well done, son! You can use the noun son for non-human animals too: "Our cat had six kittens, five daughters and one son." But it's far more likely that you'll describe human offspring as sons or daughters. Family names (or surnames) in many cultures include son or son of, like "Jefferson" or "Wilson," originally "son of Jeffrey" and "son of William."
Vocabulary lists containing son
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:
Former US president Joe Biden's cancer has metastasized further, according to his son Hunter Biden, who shared the update in a recent interview with the BBC.
From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026
They decided a 10-hour round trip on Owen's day off in the week to see his newborn son was not an option.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
I used to leave my workshop so messy that our engineering-major son would spend a day organizing it whenever he came home from college.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
Charise Butler, 54, drove all the way from her home in Burbank Friday morning with her son to take a look at the billboard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Jane Pierce with her son Bennie prior to 1853.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Be careful there son- the last time I let a fan put themself in my shoes, they just took off running & sold them on Ebay.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2018
There was Joseph Manley, son- in-law and arch-disciple of Foster.
From Time Magazine Archive
And then she pointed her crab leg toward her future son- in-law, Rich, and said, “See how this one doesn’t know how to eat Chinese food.”
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
It is the voice I hear even now when my mother addresses her son- or daughter-in-law.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
But listen: I have never consented to profit by Harley L'Estrange's friendship for me; my scruples would not extend to my son- in-law.
From My Novel — Volume 09 by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
SoftBank’s first-quarter earnings comfortably outpaced analyst expectations but this time around, Masayoshi Son the founder and chief executive, was unable to bolster his results with an increased valuation of the SoftBank stake in OpenAI.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
In his 2012 autobiography "An American Son," the man oft-memed as the "viceroy" of Cuba, recounts boasting to his exiled Cuban grandfather that he would one day overthrow Fidel Castro and free Cuba.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Before Friday, Son recorded nine assists but no goals over 13 unlucky matches this season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
Just as life came through Pachamama, they believed, Mary was chosen by God as the mother through whom he sent his Son, who gave humanity the path to eternal life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
“Girlfriend? Ha! Son, a man my age don’t keep pictures of his teenage girlfriend up on his walls. What that look like?”
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
“Everything I owned was supposed to support my sons and grandchildren. Now it’s beyond the line; it’s gone forever,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
Al-Dabba and his sons, donning protective netted hats and wielding metal bee smokers, gently inspect the neat rows of teeming hives.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Sarah had stayed behind in Cincinnati, where we live, in part to preserve as much normalcy as possible for our young sons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
A separate press release also placed limits on tax audit immunity granted to Trump, two of his sons and their businesses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
This time, his oldest two sons, Hal and Jim, would go with him.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
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.
