The term that describes the act of producing offspring is reproduction. Reproduction is a biological process by which new individual organisms are generated from their parents. It can occur through various methods, such as sexual reproduction, where genetic material from two parents combines to create offspring, or asexual reproduction, which involves a single organism producing genetically identical copies of itself. Reproduction is crucial for the survival of species and the continuation of genetic material across generations, allowing for evolutionary changes and adaptations to occur in response to environmental pressures.