daughter

[ daw-ter ]

noun

1. a female child or person in relation to her parents.
2. any female descendant.
3. a person related as if by the ties binding daughter to parent:

   daughter of the church.

4. anything personified as female and considered with respect to its origin:

   The United States is the daughter of the 13 colonies.

5. Chemistry, Physics. an isotope formed by radioactive decay of another isotope.

adjective

1. Biology. pertaining to a cell or other structure arising from division or replication:

   daughter cell; daughter DNA.

daughter

/ ˈdɔːtə /

noun

1. a female offspring; a girl or woman in relation to her parents
2. a female descendant
3. a female from a certain country, etc, or one closely connected with a certain environment, etc filial

   a daughter of the church

4. archaic.
   often capital a form of address for a girl or woman

adjective

1. biology denoting a cell or unicellular organism produced by the division of one of its own kind
2. physics (of a nuclide) formed from another nuclide by radioactive decay

Derived Forms

• ˈdaughterly, adjective
• ˈdaughterliness, noun
• ˈdaughterhood, noun
• ˈdaughterless, adjective
• ˈdaughter-ˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• daughter·less adjective
• daughter·like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of daughter¹

before 950; Middle English doughter, Old English dohtor; cognate with German Tochter, Greek thygátēr, Sanskrit duhitā

Word History and Origins

Origin of daughter¹

Old English dohtor; related to Old High German tohter daughter, Greek thugatēr, Sanskrit duhitá

Example Sentences

Clark confirmed Ingalls’ daughter was the only returning cheerleader cut this season, but said freshmen trying out for the first time were also cut.

From Voice of San Diego

Planned for nearly 20 years—a pact between my mother and her college roommate to each name their first daughter Kate.

From Nautilus

One parent of two teenagers involved in the effort, Robert Jason Noonan, said his 16- and 17-year-old daughters were being paid by Turning Point to push “conservative points of view and values” on social media.

From Washington Post

So what Tyler did was get out ahead of being shunted to secretaries and daughters by confused investors, the way Jenn Hyman had.

From Fortune

By the time Pure went public in 1995, my wife and I had been married for four years and we had one young daughter.

From Freakonomics

Then came Bess Myerson, a daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants who was raised in the Sholem Aleichem Houses in the Bronx.

From The Daily Beast

Like most Jewish mothers, Myerson thought her daughter could do better.

From The Daily Beast

This is about no longer accepting that—as so many others have stated—a family would rather have a dead son than a living daughter.

From The Daily Beast

I noticed a picture of her daughter, who was my classmate, and out of curiosity visited her page.

From The Daily Beast

Her adopted daughter tried to suffocate a younger biological sibling.

From The Daily Beast

"The Smoker," and "Mother and Daughter," a triptych, are two of her principal pictures.

From Project Gutenberg

The Rev. Alonzo Barnard, seventy-one years of age, accompanied by his daughter, was present.

From Project Gutenberg

He reached forward and took her hands, and if Mrs. Vivian had come in she would have seen him kneeling at her daughter's feet.

From Project Gutenberg

Every word that now fell from the agitated Empress was balm to the affrighted nerves of her daughter.

From Project Gutenberg

She looked from the picture to her daughter, with a frightful glare, in their before mild aspect.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• child
• descendant
• female offspring
• girl
• kid
• offspring