后裔 (hòu yì) literally combines 后 (hòu), meaning 'after' or 'later', and 裔 (yì), meaning 'descendant' or 'offspring'. Together, they form a formal literary term for 'descendants' — people who are biologically or genealogically descended from a particular ancestor, lineage, or group. It emphasizes generational continuity and is often used in historical, anthropological, or biological contexts.

The word carries a dignified, somewhat classical tone and appears frequently in academic writing, official documents, and discussions about ancestry, evolution, or heritage. While it can refer to human descendants, it’s also commonly applied to animals — for example, when describing modern species as the evolutionary 后裔 of extinct ancestors like dinosaurs. Unlike colloquial terms like 孩子 (child) or 孙子 (grandchild), 后裔 is never used for immediate family members in everyday speech; it always implies distance in time or lineage.