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• youth
  youth

  noun

  the condition of being young.
• Youth
  Youth

  noun

  Isle of Youth an island in the Caribbean, a special municipality in southern Cuba. 1,182 sq. mi. (3,060 sq. km).

youth

¹ American  

[yooth] / juθ /

noun

• youths,
  plural
• youth
  plural

1. the condition of being young.

   Antonyms:

   maturity

2. the appearance, freshness, vigor, spirit, etc., characteristic of one who is young.

3. the time of being young; early life.

   His youth was spent on the farm.

   Synonyms:

   immaturity, minority

   Antonyms:

   maturity

4. the period of life from puberty to the attainment of full growth; adolescence.

5. the first or early period of anything.

   The business, even in its youth, showed great potential.

6. young persons collectively.

7. a young person, especially a young man or male adolescent.

   Synonyms:

   boy, lad, stripling, adolescent, teenager, youngster

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Youth ² American  

[yooth] / juθ /

noun

1. Isle of Youth an island in the Caribbean, a special municipality in southern Cuba. 1,182 sq. mi. (3,060 sq. km).

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youth ¹ British  

/ juːθ /

noun

1. the quality or condition of being young, immature, or inexperienced

   his youth told against him in the contest

2. the period between childhood and maturity, esp adolescence and early adulthood

3. the freshness, vigour, or vitality characteristic of young people

   youth shone out from her face

4. any period of early development

   the project was in its youth

5. a young person, esp a young man or boy

6. young people collectively

   youth everywhere is rising in revolt

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Youth ² British  

/ juːθ /

noun

1. Spanish name: Isla de la Juventud.  Former name: Isle of Pines.  an island in the NW Caribbean, south of Cuba: administratively part of Cuba from 1925. Chief town: Nueva Gerona. Pop: 80 600 (2002 est). Area: 3061 sq km (1182 sq miles)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• youthless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• youth
  plural
• youths
  plural

Etymology

Origin of youth

First recorded before 900; Middle English youthe, Old English geoguth; cognate with Dutch jeugd, German Jugend

Explanation

If you're not a little kid anymore, but you're not really an adult yet, you can describe this period of your life as your youth. You can use the noun youth in several ways — you might refer to a kid as a youth, describe the group of teenagers hanging out downtown as youth, or talk about the time in your life when you were young and carefree as your youth. In all cases, youth comes from the Old English geoguth, which is closely related to the root of young: geong.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

youth Youth youths

Modi, a keen user of X, has turned to Instagram -- issuing his first vertical videos to tap into the youth medium of choice.

From Barron's ● Aug. 8, 2026

New piercing hubs now rolling out feature Claire’s new hero shade of lilac; bigger, comfier chairs than the ones of my youth; and an Inspiration Bar to help customers design their “ear stacks.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Last month, the much larger protests in Delhi became one of the sharpest expressions of youth anger over examinations and jobs in recent years.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

Another youth safety case involving Meta is also headed to trial this month in California.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

I shall never more know the sweet homage given to beauty, youth, and grace—for never to any one else shall I seem to possess these charms.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

As recently as December 2024, the Colorado School of Public Health paid 12- to 18-year-olds to participate in weekly meetings of the Queer Youth Network.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

She helped establish the French branch of Youth Aliyah; by 1936, some 120 children had reached Palestine through its efforts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

While at City, rapid forward Fletcher, an England Under-17s international, helped the club reach the FA Youth Cup final in 2024 and 2025 before impressing at Ipswich, scoring six times in the Premier League 2.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Law enforcement agencies are “now trying to reinvent themselves as social workers, as drug counselors, as this and that,” said George Galvis, executive director of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

The Catholic Church forbade its young people to join the Hitler Youth.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

She estimated there were at least 200 protesters, many of them youths wearing hoodies.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

Elsewhere in the fenced-off city, Spanish soldiers ushered hundreds of other migrants, mostly young men and youths, through Ceuta's palm-lined streets to the border to return to Morocco.

From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026

He looks vulnerable as India’s unemployed youths transform an insult into a political rallying cry.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The new analysis included more than 25,000 participants enrolled in a long-running study of U.S. youths.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026

The largest and most cosmopolitan city in England, the symbol of freedom to thousands upon thousands of country youths, compelled its citizens to be off the streets at nine o'clock?

From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood

Related Words

• minority
• teens