children

English Online Dictionary. What means children‎? What does children mean?

English

Alternative forms

• childer (archaic, except in Ireland)
• childs (nonstandard, rare)
• chillen, chillun, chirren (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English children, alteration of earlier childre ("children"; > English dialectal childer), from Old English ċildru, ċildra (“children”), nominative and accusative plural of ċild (“child”), equivalent to child +‎ -ren.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɪldɹən/
  • (Southern US, African-American Vernacular) IPA^(key): [tʃɪl.ɹən]
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃɪl.d̠ɹ̠ ̝ʷən]
• (UK dialectal, General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃʊldɹən/
  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃʊld̠ɹ̠ ̝ʷən]
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɪldɹən/, (proscribed) /ˈt͡ʃɪl.dən/
• Rhymes: -ɪldɹən, -ʊldɹən
• Hyphenation: chil‧dren

Noun

children

1. plural of child
2. plural of childer

Derived terms

Anagrams

• childern

Middle English

Etymology

From childre (“children”) with a pleonastic addition of the plural suffix -en; compare calveren, eyren, lambren.

Noun

children

1. plural of child