MEANING
The children or young produced by a person, animal, or plant, considered together.
Use it for
referring collectively to someone’s children; describing the young produced by an animal; discussing descent across a breeding line; giving a family line a formal narrative registerNames the young of a person, animal, or plant collectively, giving lineage a formal biological or literary focus. Writing functions: Lineage / Descendants.
Words that belong together
- healthy progeny
- the progeny of a parent
- leave no progeny
On the page
She had never seen the valley, though her progeny would one day call it home.
The old mare’s progeny shared her narrow head and restless gait.
Word forms
- Base
- progeny
Usage notes
Normally a collective plural or uncountable noun: progeny. The ordinary collective form is unchanged; do not invent progenys. Use a child or a descendant for an unambiguous single individual. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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