teenager
Americannoun
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:
A French teenager was fined in Singapore Thursday after pleading guilty to a public nuisance charge for a straw-licking stunt that landed him in hot water in the city state.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
"I joined our party as a teenager and saw first hand the difference a Labour government makes," she said.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
For years, I would come home from figure-skating practice bruised from falling, exhausted from trying not to fall and tender from the ambient heartache of being a teenager.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
She’d been living on that edge since she was a teenager at Hollywood High in the late 1950s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The scrappy kid in boots didn’t match the teenager in a bouncy white dress.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
The adults as much as the teenagers find themselves beset by doubts about their futures, haunted by the ghosts of their pasts, or agonizing over the thorny matter of God’s presence or absence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Over the last several years, e-bikes have increased in popularity among younger adults and teenagers, leading to a rise in serious and sometimes-deadly collisions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
The teenagers hope a dedicated women's minister would be a member of the Northern Ireland Executive, holding office as a minister within the Executive Office and appointed by the First and Deputy First Ministers.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
And while we had different ways of getting to that goal, we sold teenagers on the idea that they should delay pregnancy so that they could accomplish their goals.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2026
I befriended other teenagers in the camp, including a pretty Hungarian girl my age.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
