offspring

/ˈɔfspɹɪŋ/noun

offspring is spelled O-F-F-S-P-R-I-N-G: 9 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, offspring means “A person's daughter or son; a person's child” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in offspring?

Letters	9: O-F-F-S-P-R-I-N-G
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	5.9 times per million words; the 10,028th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is offspring?

Offspring appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form in the list.

offspring0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce offspring?

UK /ˈɒfspɹɪŋ/
US /ˈɔfspɹɪŋ/
US /ˈɑfspɹɪŋ/

Offspring has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-offspring.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does offspring mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

1
A person's daughter or son; a person's child.
We are the offspring of Italian immigrants.
2
Any of a person's descendants, including of further generations.
3
An animal or plant's progeny or young.
4
Anything produced; the result of an entity's efforts.
Artists often treasure their works as their immortal offspring.
5
A process launched by another process.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Offspring in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	enfant (singular offspring (male, female or sex…), enfance, enfants, descendance, progéniture (plural or collective offspring (only males…)
German	Nachkomme, Nachkommin, Kind, Sohn, Tochter, Sprössling (singular offspring (male, female or sex…)
Portuguese	filho, filha, rebento, vergôntea (singular offspring (male, female or sex…), descendência (plural or collective offspring (only males…), descendente (plural or collective offspring, animal's or…)
Spanish	vástago, descendiente, sucesor, sucesora (singular offspring (male, female or sex…), descendencia (plural or collective offspring (only males…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does offspring come from?

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