teenager
Americannoun
-
teenagers
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of teenager
Explanation
If you're younger than 20 but older than 12, congratulations! You're a teenager! Teenagers are also known as teens or adolescents. Generally, teenagers have finished elementary school, are growing fairly quickly, and are in the last stage of development before they become official adults. As a teenager, the things you may do include graduating from high school, getting a driver's license, and working at a paid job. Before teenager was coined in the 1920s, the word was teener.
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:
As a teenager, LeRoy Chatfield took an oath with the Congregation of Christian Brothers to live a life of poverty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
And with Arteta keen to protect the teenager, he was guarded around whether it may be too early to send Dowman out on loan.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
In the early sixties, Bowie was a teenager, performing as Davie Jones at London clubs and dreaming of stardom.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
When he was a teenager, Walters remembers, he dove into some catfish holes so vast he couldn’t find the back.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
His true luxuries were a fish pond and a garden, designed and built by himself, something he’d first done as a teenager.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
The three sisters, here as teenagers with their father, died in the sea.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
To passersby, we could easily be mistaken for two teenagers hiding in the shadows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The European Union’s top official said Brussels has plans to stop children under 13 from accessing social networks and restrict what teenagers can do online.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
At the two largest cemeteries, researchers found an unusually large number of children and young teenagers among those who had died.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
A group of teenagers swarms the My Crush Wants to Go Out with Me counter and don’t leave a single bottle on the shelf.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
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.
