noun
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a young person; child or youth
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a young animal, esp a horse
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of youngster
Explanation
Youngster is a good, generic way to talk about a person who's younger than you are, especially a child. If you babysit a neighborhood kid, you can describe him as a youngster. The noun youngster is a casual word meaning "child," and its synonyms include tyke and small fry. Older people sometimes use it to refer to adults who are younger than they are: "You youngsters can keep playing cards, but I'm going to bed!" Youngster has been around since the 1500's, when it replaced the earlier youngling.
Vocabulary lists containing youngster
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The youngster somehow stayed upright but his legs had gone.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Born in 1962, Hardy was an impressionable youngster when Ashe made history as the 1968 winner of the men’s singles title in the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
An impressive Under-17 World Cup with Austria in November last year led Liverpool to add the talented youngster to their ranks.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
A youngster sprang from the grass, running toward its mother, draped in what looked like a roomy shag carpet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
The speed and power and grace of the adults was startling by contrast, and Mary saw how much a growing youngster must long for the day when the wheels would fit.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
"From my personal experience that is where a lot of youngsters get their Welsh and are able to... learn Welsh properly".
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
New Zealand's government will introduce legislation on Monday banning under 16s from using social media, joining a number of countries seeking to keep youngsters off sites such as Instagram and TikTok.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
There is some hope for people who remember those old internet communities, as well as the nostalgic youngsters who never knew a more wide-open internet.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Lees & Co—Manchester’s oldest brewery and owner of Founder’s Hall—has found employing youngsters increasingly difficult in recent years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
They were not the only youngsters left to fend for themselves in the ghetto.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
