Progeny
noun /ˈprɒdʒ.ɪ.ni/ — A descendant or the descendants of someone; offspring.
Definition
A person's descendants considered as a group; offspring. Can refer to biological children or to intellectual or artistic descendants — the works, students, or ideas that emerge from a creator.
Beyond the definition
Progeny are what we leave. Not just children, but ideas that take root in others, works that generate further works, ways of seeing that become someone else's lens. The progeny of the mind outlast the body.
Origin & history
Latin: 'progenies' (offspring, race). From 'progignere' (to bring forth). From 'pro' (before, forward) + 'gignere' (to beget). The idea of bringing something into being that continues forward.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
The teacher's progeny — intellectual descendants as much as students — were now leading universities worldwide.
The poet's true progeny were the next generation of poets who read her work and wrote differently because of it.
His progeny included four children and a design philosophy that had shaped every architectural school in the country.
Synonyms
descendants, offspring, issue, heirs
Antonyms
ancestors, forebears, progenitors
Related words
Progeny vs offspring
Progeny is a formal term used for descendants, often in a biological or legal context. Offspring is a more general term for the young of any animal or human.
Word in the Wild
See how this word appears in life, language and stories.
Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.
Illustrative example
Tigress Walking With Cubs
A tigress and her cubs walk together along a woodland trail.
The cubs walking with their mother are the progeny, representing not just a biological connection but the continuation of the line from the ancestor into the future.
Image credit: Yajuvendraupadhyaya · CC BY 4.0 (license)
Resized and converted to WebP; full composition retained.