teenager
Americannoun
-
teenagers
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of teenager
Explanation
If you're younger than 20 but older than 12, congratulations! You're a teenager! Teenagers are also known as teens or adolescents. Generally, teenagers have finished elementary school, are growing fairly quickly, and are in the last stage of development before they become official adults. As a teenager, the things you may do include graduating from high school, getting a driver's license, and working at a paid job. Before teenager was coined in the 1920s, the word was teener.
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:
With his music career taking off and a debut album about to be released, the lawsuit alleges, Burke was making millions of dollars and had a reason to silence the teenager.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Chicken Shop Date grew out of a youth club project and interviews Dimoldenberg conducted with south London grime artists as a teenager for The Cut.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Sarah Sobel is one busy teenager at Sierra Canyon High.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
As a teenager, he sold motorbikes on eBay and later worked for the company, according to a profile on the website of Sequoia Capital, one of Hugging Face’s investors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
She is older than a teenager and yet not quite grown-up.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
The DfE estimates that 57,000 16- and 17-year-olds in England are Neet, and Dame Rachel's report argues that these persistently absent teenagers should be considered as "hidden" Neets alongside them.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
“It’s really hard to change a culture. When you’re trying to break bad habits and teenagers need to buy into someone who just shows up, it takes time.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
Like many teenagers, she spends about seven hours inside a school building without recess.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
In South Bank, we see a group of teenagers tend three ponies tethered on the grass.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
As teenagers, Andrew and his other brother, Robert, then joined their uncle’s militia company as couriers carrying messages and news of battles.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
