Learn English – What do you call a child for whom you act as a guardian / custodian

single-word-requeststerminology

What is the term for this, if there is such a term?

For example, if you're a parent, you refer to your offspring as a 'child' and the child refers to you as their 'parent'.

I am asking because I need to have a term for the relationship of a guardian to the child. For a child, they can refer to this person as their 'guardian' but the other way around (guardian to child) doesn't seem to have a term.

What should I call it?

Best Answer

I believe the usual term is 'ward'.

In law, a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian. - Wikipedia