orphan; child left by the deceased
Refers to a child whose parent(s) have died. Often used in formal, literary, or news contexts. Not a casual everyday word; 孤児 (こじ) is more common for 'orphan' in general.
戦争で親を亡くした遺児たちを支援する団体がある。
There is an organization that supports children who lost their parents in the war.
He lost his father in an accident and became an orphan.
彼は交通事故で両親を失った遺児だ。
He is a child left parentless by a traffic accident.
Rare, somewhat literary use for a child who has been abandoned or left behind. In modern Japanese, 捨て子 (すてご) is the usual word for an abandoned child.
昔話には、遺児が寺に拾われる話がよく出てくる。
In old tales, stories of abandoned children being taken in by temples often appear.
This fund supports children who lost their parents in the disaster.
The grandmother raised her orphaned grandchild.
捨て子 is the standard word for an abandoned child, whereas 遺児 in this sense is a rare, literary usage.
遺児 refers specifically to a child left behind by a deceased parent, while 遺族 refers more broadly to the bereaved family members of a deceased person.
child orphaned by a traffic accident
child who has lost a parent to suicide; child of a suicide victim
Compound of 遺 (い, 'leave behind') and 児 (じ, 'child'). The kanji combination directly conveys the meaning of a child left behind, either by death or abandonment.