offspring
/ˈɒfspɹɪŋ/
"offspring" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“offspring” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,098 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,098
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person's daughter or son; a person's child.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | offspring |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɒfspɹɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #10,098 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “offspring” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for offspring is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɒfspɹɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,098 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for offspring, with forms such as "fofspring", "offpsring", and "offspirng". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "offering", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ofspring, from Old English ofspring (“offspring, descendants, posterity”), equivalent to off- + spring. Compare Icelandic afspringur (“offspring”). More at off, spring. The correct English form is offspring, spelled O-F-F-S-P-R-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A person's daughter or son; a person's child.
- 2Any of a person's descendants, including of further generations.
- 3An animal or plant's progeny or young.
- 4Anything produced; the result of an entity's efforts.
- 5A 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.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fofspring,offpsring,offspirng,offsppring,offsprign,offspringg,offsprinng,offsprnig,offsprring,offsrping,offsspring,ofsfpring,ofspring
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of offspring - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “offspring”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-F-F-S-P-R-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɒfspɹɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “offering” - see the side-by-side comparison. offspring vs offering
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.