son
noun
a male child or person in relation to his parents.
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son
1 American
[suhn]
/ sʌn /
noun
-
sons
plural
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a male child or person in relation to his parents.
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a male child or person adopted as a son; a person in the legal position of a son.
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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
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(often capital) a familiar term of address for a boy or man
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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:
Blacknell did not know who was representing her client’s son.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
One morning in August, Nancy Crockett of Holden, Mass., took her middle-aged son Adam Davis to the E.R. for abdominal pain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
The couple welcomed a son, Taran, in June 2018, and a daughter, Sloane, in 2022.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
The son of one of Malaysia's founding fathers, Najib was groomed for leadership from a young age but fell from power spectacularly as public anger mounted over the corruption scandal.
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026
His father, Henry Sr., came from London to see his new son and escort Kate and their two boys back to England.
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
One tract of 12,000 acres of land on Maui was given to a young American, who married a bewitching Kanaka girl, by her father, who was delighted to have a pale-faced son- in-law.
From Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom by Trumbull White
Once lauded as the Son of Heaven, Puyi died in 1967 as a commoner in Beijing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Alex Pong left a career in tech to open the Paper Son Cafe in San Francisco in 2023.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
Bourne has written songs for McFly and 5 Seconds of Summer, and also fronted his own band, Son of Dork.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
I recognize that transferring it to him would affect the inheritance ultimately received by Son #2.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
I will always be Second Son to him, no matter what Charlie does.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
I recognize that every dollar I spend today is a dollar that won’t be available for future investments, unexpected expenses or an inheritance for my sons.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026
One son and a divorced daughter share his tiny one-room apartment, while his two other sons had to move elsewhere due to lack of space.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
The history of paper sons is obscure even to most Chinese-Americans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
The film’s subjects, mountaineer Jim Morrison and his partner Hilaree Nelson, found love at the edge of the world and made a life together, with Morrison becoming co-parent to Nelson’s two young sons.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
Secretary of State William H. Seward and his sons survived their wounds.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
