What’s the plural of “offspring”?
Offspring only has a singular form, and is considered a mass noun or non-count noun (similar to fire, knowledge and water.) Non-count nouns, or mass nouns, do only have a singular noun forms, though they’re technically not easily quantifiable or … countable.
What’s the singular of offspring?
Offspring is a singular noun form, though it refers to multiple of something. Offspring is what’s called a mass noun in English, which are nouns that are non-countable, or exist as masses or substances that cannot be quantified. Mass nouns also may be abstract or conceptual, such as knowledge or wisdom (these are also abstract nouns).
What does the word offspring mean?
Offspring is defined in the dictionary as, the “product of the reproductive processes of a person, animal, or plant : young, progeny.”
Other mass nouns
Examples of the word offspring used in sentences
The following sentences show the correct use of the word offspring in context:
1. Human offspring are referred to as children.
2. Cloning is the production of an offspring which represents the identical genes as its parent.
3. The substitution of the typewriter and its offspring for the author’s own hand. Jacques Barzun
4. The disease can be transmitted from parent to offspring.
5. You can hear this Caribbean club music, a hard-edged and party-heavy offspring of reggae … Lorraine Ali
Origin of the word offspring
From etymology online on offspring (n.):
Old English ofspring “children or young collectively, descendants,” literally “those who spring off (someone),” from of “away, away from” (see off (prep.)) + springan “to spring”.
What’s the difference between they’re, their, and there?
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