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I am a common word that refers to a person.
I rarely refer to very young people – in fact, the older a person is, the more likely they are to be called me.
However, if you pick two random siblings, the younger of them is more likely than the older one to be called me.

What word am I?

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4 Answers 4

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Along the lines of AHKieran I think the answer is actually

Aunt/Uncle

I am a common word that refers to a person.

Many people are aunts/uncles

I rarely refer to very young people – in fact, the older a person is, the more likely they are to be called me.

The older you are, the more likely it is that your siblings have children.

However, if you pick two random siblings, the younger of them is more likely than the older one to be called me.

In a random family, it is more likely that the older sibling will have children first and that the younger siblings will become aunts/uncles before the older ones do.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is the intended answer. Nice job! $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Jan 4, 2019 at 12:34
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Is the answer:

Mum/Dad

I am a common word that refers to a person.

Extremely common name for a parent

I rarely refer to very young people – in fact, the older a person is, the more likely they are to be called me.

The older a person is, the more likely they are to be a parent, and very young people are rarely parents.

However, if you pick two random siblings, the younger of them is more likely than the older one to be called me.

When a person gets even older, they become a grandparent, so even though both siblings could be parents, it's more likely that the older one is called Grandad/Granny (or whatever word would be used) by their children, especially in presence of grandchildren.

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  • $\begingroup$ Very close! This is a pretty good fit, but the last part probably isn't limited to siblings in this case. $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Jan 4, 2019 at 12:34
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Are you:

a Git

I am a common word that refers to a person.

Common in the UK at least

I rarely refer to very young people – in fact, the older a person is, the more likely they are to be called me.

While not unheard of its rare to call a child a git, but you'd hear grumpy old git fairly often, especially in pubs

However, if you pick two random siblings, the younger of them is more likely than the older one to be called me.

its quite common to hear an older sibling call their young a little git

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    $\begingroup$ I hate to cherry-pick, but you need to rebase this answer before committing to it. $\endgroup$ Jan 3, 2019 at 15:20
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    $\begingroup$ @user1717828 Pull yourself together, no need to push people around! $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Jan 3, 2019 at 16:08
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    $\begingroup$ @jafe I know you're just trying to extend the olive branch, but checkout the answer. Can you really blame them? At least it's not a clone, though. $\endgroup$
    – jpmc26
    Jan 4, 2019 at 2:06
  • $\begingroup$ @jpmc26, what's actually wrong with the answer? i admit i went for humourous with my answer, but it does technically fit the clues. $\endgroup$ Jan 4, 2019 at 7:25
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    $\begingroup$ @BladeWraith lol. It's not bad. It's pretty clearly not the right one, but we were all just dropping git command names as a joke (cherry-pick, rebase, commit, pull, push, branch, checkout, blame, clone). $\endgroup$
    – jpmc26
    Jan 4, 2019 at 7:28
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Another answer that fits the clues is:

Man

I am a common word that refers to a person.

Commonly used to refer to men, and often people in general due to gender-biased language (e.g. "early man", "man in the street", etc.).

I rarely refer to very young people – in fact, the older a person is, the more likely they are to be called me.

One usually only calls an adult a man, although male children can also be referred to using the term man, e.g. "little man", "be a man" etc.

However, if you pick two random siblings, the younger of them is more likely than the older one to be called me.

It's not a large effect, but the fact that sex-selective abortion in favour of male foetuses is more prevalent when a couple's first-born child is female [citation] would suggest that on average a second born child is statistically more likely to be male, and therefore be referred to at some point as a man.

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