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:
I couldn’t claim to be surprised by any of this, exactly—I was a teenager in the immediate post-9/11 years and knew how ugly it could get—but it was still stunning to see.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2026
The nephew of trainer Aidan O'Brien, he was a mainstay of the Minehead operation run by Philip Hobbs, joining as a teenager and remaining until his retirement in 2023.
From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2026
Every teenager with a credit card has used this method.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2026
That could be a criminal crew, a foreign intelligence service or a bored teenager.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2026
A teenager adjusts her sunglasses; her colorful, beaded bracelets slide down her brown forearm.
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
Sandra contacted the BBC in response to a report about teenagers boasting on TikTok about stealing motorbikes.
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2026
The teenagers spend the first two years preparing to take the FAA’s written exam, and, by 11th grade, or age 16, log hours in an aircraft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2026
But S. Neil Fujita was a 20-year-old art student while Ruth Asawa and Kay Sekimachi were teenagers when they were interned in the U.S.; their first experience of art came in the camps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2026
While Russian groups are not being ruled out, experts say Iranian hacktivists or nation state hackers - or even teenagers pulling pranks - could also be the culprits.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
On one table was a group of teenagers playing what looked like a DnD session.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
