pubescent
Americanadjective
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arriving or arrived at puberty.
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Botany, Zoology. covered with down or fine short hair.
adjective
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arriving or having arrived at puberty
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(of certain plants and animals or their parts) covered with a layer of fine short hairs or down
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pubescent
1640–50; < Latin pūbēscent- (stem of pūbēscēns ), present participle of pūbēscere to attain puberty, reach puberty, become hairy or downy. See pubes 1, -escent
Explanation
A pubescent girl or boy is a young person who's just reached the age of puberty, or sexual maturity. Use the adjective pubescent to describe a person who's at the end of childhood growth and is beginning to be fully adult, including being nearly old enough physically to reproduce, or have babies. Pubescent girls and boys are at an in-between stage in their lives, no longer little kids, but not yet grownups. The root of pubescence is the Latin word pubescere, "grow up, ripen, or come to maturity."
Vocabulary lists containing pubescent
Native Speaker
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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.
Few shows are quite as ripely pubescent as this adaptation of the very popular “Every Summer After,” the debut of author Carley Fortune and the opening salvo in her “Barry’s Bay” series of romance novels.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
This pubescent Vance has been adorned with a rainbow propeller hat and a swirly lollipop, morphed into a patriotic Minion from Despicable Me, and rendered as lisping Hans Landa, the Nazi villain from Inglourious Basterds.
From Slate • Mar. 5, 2025
To the moody strains of Sheik’s alt-rock score, the vise of adolescence is captured in a story about pubescent youths rebelling against the warping will of adult hypocrisy and repression.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2023
As the furor over "Turning Red" reveals, periods – especially the first ones that a pubescent child experiences – are not widely embraced as acceptable on our screens.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2022
“My pubescent nemesis. What a promising day this appears to be. I am apparently to be run over by a streetcar and robbed simultaneously, thereby setting a Paradise record. Get away, you depraved urchin.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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.
