young adult
Americannoun
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a teenager (used especially by publishers and librarians).
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a person in the early years of adulthood.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Romer grew up in a trailer park in New York but moved to Lafayette, La., as a young adult with her partner.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
McElwee’s last documentary, 2011’s “Photographic Memory,” saw Adrian as a young adult, trying to come into his own and figure out his place in life amid a shifting social landscape riddled with digital black holes.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
But the more important conclusion is that your needs were not met as a child, nor as a young adult adjusting to a new life with a disability.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
As a young adult, he attended the graduate programme of the Yale School of Drama, where he got his first experience of directing.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
Anatole has reorganized the secondary school, which had been in pure collapse for ten years—hardly a young adult in Kimvula village can read.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
