A child is a young person who hasn't yet become an adult, typically someone between birth and around age 12 or 13. The word covers a wide range: a three-year-old learning to tie her shoes is a child, and so is a twelve-year-old studying fractions. Doctors and scientists often use more specific terms like infant for babies, toddler for those learning to walk, and adolescent for teenagers, but child is often used for all these ages.

The word can also mean someone's son or daughter, regardless of age. A seventy-year-old woman is still the child of her ninety-year-old mother. Parents might say “my children” when talking about their kids, even if those kids are now adults with children of their own.

In one special use, calling someone a child of something means they were shaped by it. A person might be called a child of the Depression if they grew up during that difficult economic time in the 1930s, or a child of the digital age if they grew up with computers and smartphones.

The word childhood refers to the period of being a child: those years of learning, playing, and growing before you take on adult responsibilities.