preteen
Americannoun
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preteens
plural
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Also called preteenager. Also called preteener. a boy or girl under the age of 13, especially one between the ages of 9 and 12.
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preteens, the years immediately preceding one's thirteenth birthday.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of preteen
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:
A mother who sees other women as her direct competition isn’t just creepy; she’s dangerous — and the fact that, in this case, the other women are preteen girls makes it even worse.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026
Adora is also in possession of “one of the weirder jobs”: a fellowship from the partially paralyzed, mind-bogglingly rich descendant of a steel baron to provide moral training to his spoiled, acquisitive preteen twin sons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
The man set to become one of the world’s youngest artificial intelligence billionaires started his entrepreneurial journey as a bored preteen living in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2026
The Kim regime figures other nations won’t subject preteen girls to arduous training.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
Well, sure, when he put it like that, I could see that I was never going to become a preteen real estate mogul if I wasted earnings by renting rather than buying.
From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen
The suit states that "despite public knowledge of ChatGPT's use by minors, including preteens, defendants have not taken steps to prevent their use of ChatGPT."
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
The kids and preteens in the youngest generation have grown up with the ability to watch any movie on any device anytime and anywhere they desire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025
Now, all 284 million of those people will probably not vote for Harris, in part because many of them are preteens and/or residents of foreign countries.
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2024
Within a couple of minutes, it snakes all the way back to the entrance, populated by doting parents and spellbound preteens hoping they arrived in time.
From New York Times ● May 24, 2024
By the time Dad gets home with the pizza, the two of them are screeching like preteens, and all is back to normal.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
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.
