Word.ws English Dictionary

step-child

step-child is the alternative form of stepchild.

Meaning of stepchild

Noun

stepchild (plural stepchildren)

  1. The child of one's spouse from a previous relationship.
    • On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” and in a lighthearted moment, explained — as she did during the last presidential election cycle — that in her blended family, her stepchildren affectionately call her Momala.2024 May 1, Charles M. Blow, “Kamala Harris Isn’t Americans’ ‘Momala.’ She’s Our Vice President.”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 03 May 2024
    Synonyms:
    stepbairn, stepkid, step
  2. (obsolete) A bereaved child; one who has lost father or mother.
    Synonyms:
    orphan

Forms of step-child

pluralstep-children

Questions about step-child

What is step-child the alternative form of?
Step-child is the alternative form of stepchild.

Words near step-child in the dictionary

  1. step-brethren
  2. step-brother
  3. step-brothers
  4. step-by-step
  5. step-by-steps
  6. step-child
  7. step-children
  8. step-climb
  9. step-climbed
  10. step-climbing
  11. step-climbs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: step-child (page history and authors); stepchild (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “step-child.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/step-child. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.