- [countable] a person’s male child
- their four-year-old son
- my teenage/eldest son
- her young/baby son
- We have two sons and a daughter.
- They have three grown-up sons.
- In January 1816 she gave birth to a son, William.
- She is survived by a son, Christopher.
- the birth/death of a son
- son of somebody He's the son of an Oxford professor.
- He was like a son to me.
- Maine & Sons, Grocers (= the name of a company on a sign)
Collocations ChildrenChildrenHaving a baby/child- want a baby/a child/kids
- start a family
- conceive/be expecting/be going to have a baby/child
- miss your period
- become/get/be/find out that you are pregnant
- have a baby/a child/kids/a son/a daughter/twins/a family
- have a normal/a difficult/an unwanted pregnancy; an easy/a difficult/a home birth
- be in/go into/induce labour (especially US English) labor
- have/suffer/cause a miscarriage
- give birth to a child/baby/daughter/son/twins
- bring up/ (especially North American English) raise a child/family
- care for/ (especially British English) look after a baby/child/kid
- change (British English) a nappy/(North American English) a diaper/a baby
- feed/breastfeed/bottle-feed a baby
- be entitled to/go on maternity/paternity leave
- go back/return to work after maternity leave
- need/find/get a babysitter/good quality affordable childcare
- balance/combine work and childcare/child-rearing/family life
- educate/teach/home-school a child/kid
- punish/discipline/spoil a child/kid
- adopt a baby/child/kid
- offer a baby for/put a baby up for adoption
- (especially British English) foster a child/kid
- be placed with/be raised by foster parents
Homophones son | sunson sun/sʌn//sʌn/- son noun
- Their youngest son is still living at home.
- sun noun
- Let's go for a picnic while the sun is shining!
- sun verb
- I think she's gone to sun herself in the back garden.
Extra ExamplesTopics Family and relationshipsa1- Living alone and trying to bring up a young son is no easy task.
- The queen bore him four fine sons.
- They welcomed me like a long-lost son.
- an illegitimate son of Louis XV
- Our oldest son is playing football.
- his son from a previous marriage
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- baby
- newborn
- infant
- …
- have
- bear
- give birth to
- …
- grow up
- [singular] (informal) a friendly form of address that is used by an older man to a young man or boy
- Well, son, how can I help you?
- [countable] (literary) a man who belongs to a particular place or country, etc.
- one of France’s most famous sons
- a native son of Philadelphia
- my son[countable] (formal) used by a priest to address a boy or man
- the Son[singular] Jesus Christ as the second member of the Trinity
- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
Word OriginOld English sunu, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zoon and German Sohn, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek huios.
Idioms
See son in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee son in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishsomebody’s favourite son
- a performer, politician, sports player, etc., who is popular where they were born
- (in the US) a candidate for president who is supported by his or her own state in the first part of a campaign
from father to son
- from one generation of a family to the next
like father, like son
- (saying) used to say that a son’s character or behaviour is similar to that of his father
the/a prodigal (son)
- a person who leaves home and wastes their money and time on a life of pleasure, but who later is sorry about this and returns home
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son