noun
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Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of childhood
before 950; Middle English childhode, Old English cildhād. See child, -hood
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.
She played goalie on soccer teams throughout childhood and in college.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026
“When children are not healthy, this affects children today and it affects them throughout their lifetimes,” she said, likening hunger during early childhood to a brain injury.
From Salon • Jun. 18, 2026
You might have been rooting for J.D. from Hillbilly Elegy, happy that religion had provided him with the comfort and stability he never got in his childhood.
From Slate • Jun. 18, 2026
He was born in Bosnia to Croatian parents and spent his childhood on the family farm there in a small village, helping to milk the cows in the mornings.
From BBC • Jun. 17, 2026
Many of the children’s games in the U.S. originated from Europe, and immigrants carried their ancestral heritage through songs and games, which in turn influenced childhood in the U.S.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
