children

Noun

child (plural children or (dialectal or archaic) childer)

1. (broadly) A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
   • Go easy on him: he is but a child.

   Synonyms:

   kid

   1. (broadly, sometimes) A youth aged 1 to 9 years, whereas neonates are aged 0 to 1 month, infants are aged 1 to 12 months, and adolescents are aged 10 to 20 years.
2. One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.
   • My youngest child is forty-three this year.

   Synonyms:

   descendant

3. The thirteenth Lenormand card.
4. (figuratively) A person considered a product of a place or culture, a member of a tribe or culture, regardless of age.
   • the children of Israel

   Synonyms:

   product, son, daughter

5. (figuratively) Anything derived from or caused by something.
   • Poverty, disease, and despair are the children of war.1991, Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children

See all 12 meanings of child

Noun

childer (plural childers or children)

1. (Ireland, Northern England) A child.
   • As yo ma be quoit shure where there's agret family a childer, a wumman's loik tubbe varra throng ina monin1839, Abel BYWATER, The Sheffield Dialect. [A Series of Papers in that Dialect, with a Glossary.], page 223