third culture kid
third culture kid noun: a young person who has lived for a significant period outside their birth (or passport) country due to parental work-related migration.
Noun
third culture kid (plural third culture kids)
- A young person who has lived for a significant period outside their birth (or passport) country due to parental work-related migration.
- In 1984, Dr. Ted Ward, then a sociologist at Michigan State University, predicted in a plenary talk at the International Conference for Missionary Kids (ICMK) in Manila that third culture kids were the prototype citizens of the future.2009, David C. Pollock, Ruth E. Van Reken, Third culture kids: growing up among worlds, page xii
- Synonyms:
- TCK
Synonyms of third culture kid
Forms of third culture kid
| plural | third culture kids |
|---|---|
| alternative form | third-culture kid |
Origin of third culture kid
Coined by American sociologist and anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1950s. "Third culture" refers to a distinct way of life different from those of the birth or host countries, but common to fellow expats.
Words formed from third culture kid
Questions about third culture kid
- What does third culture kid mean?
- Third culture kid means a young person who has lived for a significant period outside their birth (or passport) country due to parental work-related migration.
- What part of speech is third culture kid?
- Third culture kid is a noun.
- What is the plural of third culture kid?
- The plural of third culture kid is third culture kids.
Words near third culture kid in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: third culture kid (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “third culture kid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/third_culture_kid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.