adolescent

[ad-l-es-uhnt]

adjective

1. growing to manhood or womanhood; youthful.

   Synonyms: young, immature

2. having the characteristics of adolescence or of an adolescent.

noun

1. an adolescent person.

   Synonyms: minor, teenager, youth

adolescent

/ ˌædəˈlɛsənt /

adjective

1. of or relating to adolescence

2. informal,  behaving in an immature way; puerile

noun

1. an adolescent person

Other Word Forms

• adolescently adverb
• postadolescent adjective
• subadolescent adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of adolescent¹

First recorded in 1475–85; from Latin adolēscent- (stem of adolēscēns “growing up,” present participle of adolēscere ), equivalent to adol(ē)- ( adult ) + -ēsc- verb suffix + -ent- adjective suffix; -esce, -ent

Example Sentences

Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties when we "peak".

Read more on BBC

None of this is out of the ordinary for television, which has a long history of casting 20 and sometimes 30-somethings to portray adolescents.

Read more on Salon

Dusty and Ruby were adolescent sweethearts, but the audience doesn’t need to know the whole backstory to guess why they broke up.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Do they have language arts classes teaching adolescent gods to write essays in Adinkra symbols?

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But seven years after she left home, she takes a philosophical view of her adolescent turmoil.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• juvenile 
• minor 
• teenager 
• tween 
• youngster 
• youth