Meaning & use
offspring
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The young of a person, animal or plant; a child or children produced by a parent.
Grammar: The same form is singular and plural: one offspring, three offspring.
Patterns
- the offspring of someone
- produce offspring
The female lays several eggs, and the offspring hatch in spring.
The couple's offspring all became teachers.
Genes pass from parents to offspring.
nouncountablefigurative
A result or product of something, such as an idea or movement.
Grammar: Figurative and formal: the offspring of an idea.
Patterns
- the offspring of something
The festival was the offspring of a small neighborhood party.
The new style is an offspring of jazz and folk.
The company is an offspring of a university project.
Word forms
| plural | offspring |
|---|
Common combinations
- produce offspring
- Rabbits produce offspring very quickly.
- healthy offspring
- The breeding program aims for healthy offspring.
- raise offspring
- Penguins take turns to raise their offspring.
- offspring of
- The shy cat is the offspring of two stray cats.
- human offspring
- Human offspring need years of care.
Synonyms and how they differ
- children
- Children is an everyday word for people, while offspring covers animals and plants too.
- progeny
- Progeny is a formal or scientific word for descendants, and it sounds rarer.
- young
- Young is used for animals and focuses on their age, whereas offspring stresses the parent link.
Opposites
Word family
- spring verb
- part of the root, meaning to arise
- descendant noun
- a person descended from an earlier one
- progeny noun
- offspring, formal
Commonly confused: offspring or off-spring?
offspring vs off-spring
Written as one word; the hyphenated form is incorrect.
Practice
Which sentence uses offspring correctly?
Choose one answer.
Offspring does not take -s in the plural. The other forms are not correct English.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “offspring”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.