Children

How to spell children

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce children

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does children mean?

1. nounYoung human beings; the plural of child, also used for a person's sons and daughters of any age.

Children in a sentence

• The children are playing in the garden.

• The neighbours have three children.

Where does children come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English cild, meaning a young human being, which formed its plural in early times as cildru. Over the centuries an extra plural ending, the -en seen in words like oxen and brethren, was added on top of the older -r- plural, giving the doubled-up form we now spell children. That layering is exactly why children looks so irregular: it carries two historical plural markers at once, neither of which is the ordinary -s. The singular child kept a long vowel, but in children the vowel shortened, which is why the two words sound rather different despite sharing a root. The word has been part of English since well before the Norman Conquest, making it one of the oldest everyday nouns in the language.

How the word is built

• child (from Old English cild: young person)
• -r-
• -en (an old double plural marker)