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stepson

stepson

34 1.8
The son of your husband or wife from an earlier relationship
  • noun
  • /ˈstɛpˌsʌn/
translation icon : hijastro
  • To see my stepson who's in college.

I was out there with my stepson, same age as those girls, that's the thing.

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Examples

  • This is what I get when my stepson helps me out.

  • My stepson enjoys playing soccer on the weekends.

  • I have come to take my stepson back.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • I have a stepson who recently acquired a dog.

  • I speak with my American stepson and then go out to buy a blank tape.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • "Would you like to see your stepson, then?" "Yes, please," Diana said.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Your stepson was swerving all over the road.

  • I have one daughter and two stepsons, but my daughter is like my blood and she's my world.

  • Therefore, as we predicted, stepsons and adopted sons tend to receive less affection from their fathers than do biological sons.

    Academic text (2003)
  • That's my stepson's name.

Synonyms

stepchild
vsstepson
10 2.6

A child of your partner from an earlier marriage or relationship

is specifically a male child from the spouse's earlier relationship
stepkid
vsstepson
  • Informal
4 4.0

A child of your partner from an earlier relationship

is formal and refers only to a male child of a spouse's earlier relationship

Surface Forms

stepson singular
stepsons plural

Morphology

stepson = step + son (transparent) = step + son

Meaning is the straightforward combination of 'step' (in the kinship sense) + 'son', a productive kinship compound.

Etymology

The word stepson comes from the family part step-, used in words like stepmother and stepfather to show a link by marriage rather than by birth. Long ago, step- came from a word meaning 'orphan', which helps you remember that a stepson is a son of your spouse from an earlier relationship, not your own child.