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:
He followed the teenager into a classroom, where he saw a teacher fighting with the suspect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
My mother traveled to Cuba as a teenager; my father never went back.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
Omar was a child or preteen during the asylum process and a teenager during the citizenship process.
From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2026
Felipe taught himself how to program as a teenager and is developing his own game, although he acknowledges that working in Cuba throws up constant obstacles.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
“I know, I sound like the world’s most clichéd teenager, but I’m dreading it.”
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
Two teenagers, Evi Casey and Vanessa Martino, Paul’s daughter, guide us through each episode.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
We paint our current selves onto the kids we grew up with, so the bookworm remembers a childhood crowded with library lovers, and today’s teenagers are contrasted with classmates who never existed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
While it aimed to help asylum seekers and refugees "to achieve their full potential" it did not include any specific commitments to provide better access to education for older teenagers.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
The kids were all right, as it turned out, with more than half of the 12 U.S. goals in the four games coming from teenagers who were playing with the team for the first time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
