Biologically, a child (plural: children) is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. "Child" may also describe a relationship with a parent (such as sons and daughters of any age) or, metaphorically, an authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties".
Read more about Child: Legal, Biological, and Social Definitions, Socialization, Attitudes Toward Children, Age of Responsibility, One-child Policy, Child Mortality
Famous quotes containing the word child:
“Placing too much importance on where a child goes rather than what he does there . . . doesn’t take into account the child’s needs or individuality, and this is true in college selection as well as kindergarten.”
—Norman Giddan (20th century)
“As a child is indulged or checked in its early follies, a ground is generally laid for the happiness or misery of the future man.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“Live free, child of the mist,—and with respect to knowledge we are all children of the mist.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)