love child

noun

"love-child" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“love child” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A child born as a result of a romantic liaison between parents not married to one another; an illegitimate child.

Corpus desk

Index EN-love-child · love child · English

love child · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for love child
PropertyValue
Headwordlove child
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “love child” in English

love childranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

love child is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for love child in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From love + child. The correct English form is love child, spelled L-O-V-E- -C-H-I-L-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    A child born as a result of a romantic liaison between parents not married to one another; an illegitimate child.
  2. 2
    Something that includes influences of multiple predecessors.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how love child appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Nobody ever came to see her, nobody spoke of her, nobody cared about her. Mr Brass had said once, that he believed she was a ‘love-child’ (which means anything but a child of love).
  2. Love child, never meant to be / Love child, born in poverty

Etymology

From love + child.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "love child"?
"love child" is spelled L-O-V-E- -C-H-I-L-D.
What does "love child" mean?
As a noun, "love child" means: A child born as a result of a romantic liaison between parents not married to one another; an illegitimate child.
What is the origin of the word "love child"?
From love + child. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list