A stepchild is the child your husband or wife already had before you married them — your stepdaughter or your stepson. The word is used from the parent's side looking down: you have a stepchild, and to that child you are a stepmother or stepfather. The plural is irregular: **stepchildren**, not "stepchilds". Notice that the same relationship has two names depending on who is speaking. The adult says "my stepchild"; the young one says "my stepmother". English has no single word for the pair. In real speech, people often avoid the word: many say "my daughter" or "my son" about a stepchild they raised, and keep "stepchild" for forms, wills, and explanations. It is a plain, neutral word in itself, though a family that feels close may find it cold. There is also a figurative use you may meet in writing: something called the stepchild of an organisation is the part that gets ignored and given no money, while the favoured parts are looked after — "the library has long been the stepchild of the city budget". This use is a little sad and a little critical, and it borrows an old, unfair idea about how stepchildren were treated.

繼子女（配偶跟前一段關係生的小孩）。中文分「繼子」「繼女」，英文 stepchild 一字包含兩者；複數是 stepchildren。比喻用法指「被冷落、沒人管的那一塊」，接近中文的「後娘養的」。