puberty

American  

[pyoo-ber-tee] / ˈpju bər ti /

noun

• puberties
  plural

1. the period or age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction of offspring: in common law, presumed to be 14 years in the male and 12 years in the female.

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puberty British  

/ ˈpjuːbətɪ /

noun

1. Also called: pubescence.  the period at the beginning of adolescence when the sex glands become functional and the secondary sexual characteristics emerge

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puberty Scientific  

/ pyo̅o̅′bər-tē /

1. The stage in the development of humans and other primates marked by the development of secondary sex characteristics, including menarche in females. In humans, puberty occurs at the onset of adolescence, between the ages of about 11 and 14 in girls and 13 and 16 in boys.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• postpuberty
  adjective
• pubertal
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• puberties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of puberty

1350–1400; Middle English puberte < Latin pūbertās adulthood, equivalent to pūber- , stem of pūbēs grown-up + -tās -ty ²

Explanation

Puberty is a time of life when your sex organs start working like an adult's. During puberty, girls and boys start to become women and men. One of the most difficult yet exciting times in life has to be puberty: it's an awkward period between childhood and adulthood when your body rapidly changes. You go through a growth spurt, hair sprouts in new places. Your sex organs start to work for the first time. Hormones are coursing through your veins. Your voice may change. So when you think of puberty, think "awkward stage."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

puberty

"Your body hurts. Your hormones are crazy. It's kind of like puberty and menopause at the same time," she said.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

Puberty occurs in nearly every child who reaches adulthood, but unusually early puberty has been linked to health risks supported by known biological mechanisms.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

Anyway, she had not gone through male puberty, which theoretically might have endowed her with a competitive advantage, because she had been taking puberty blockers and female hormones.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

How would adolescents get through their fictional puberty if no one was traumatizing them?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

For the longest time I swore I was behind on the puberty game since I haven’t even grown a mustache, but Dylan’s actually the freak show here—handsome freak show.

From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

Related Words

• adolescence