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.
Kindness is a buzzkill for the writers of teenager television.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 30, 2026
He was still a teenager when he set out to earn money to help his mother build a house.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 30, 2026
Bobbing around the shore in goggles and a wetsuit, an energetic Wu shares from her decades of experience practising the tradition she had learned from her father as a teenager.
From Barron's • Jun. 30, 2026
The RB Leipzig teenager created five chances in the 1-0 win over Ecuador before registering two key passes in a 2-1 defeat by Germany.
From BBC • Jun. 29, 2026
But then the teenager slumped in his seat.
From "Trouble at the Arcade (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #1)" by Franklin W. Dixon
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.
