descendant

 
Pronunciation: /dɪˈsɛnd(ə)nt/

noun

  • a person, plant, or animal that is descended from a particular ancestor: she’s a descendant of Charles Darwin
  • a machine, artefact, system, etc., that has developed from an earlier, more rudimentary version: house music is a descendant of disco

Origin:

late Middle English (as an adjective in the sense 'descending'): from French, present participle of descendre 'to descend' (see descend). The noun dates from the early 17th century

The correct spelling for the noun meaning ‘person descended from a particular ancestor’ is descendant, not -ent. Descendent is a less common adjective meaning ‘descending from an ancestor’. Almost 15 per cent of the citations for the term in the Oxford English Corpus use the wrong spelling.