offspring

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   something that comes into existence as a result

   industrialism prepared the way for acceptance of the French Revolution's various socialistic offspring

2. 2
   noun

   the immediate descendants of a person

   They were parents of many offspring.

3. 3
   noun

   A person's daughter or son; a person's child.

   We are the offspring of Italian immigrants.

4. 4
   noun

   An animal or plant's progeny or young.

   In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.

5. 5
   noun

   Anything produced; the result of an entity's efforts.

   Artists often treasure their works as their immortal offspring.

6. 6
   noun

   any immature animal

7. 7
   noun

   Any of a person's descendants, including of further generations.

8. 8
   noun

   A process launched by another process.

Etymology

From Middle English ofspring, from Old English ofspring (“offspring, descendants, posterity”), equivalent to off- + spring. Compare Icelandic afspringur (“offspring”). More at off, spring.