youngest
[yuhng-gist]
- superl. of young.
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- a person who is the least old of a group, as the youngest member of a family: Their youngest is still in high school.
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young
[yuhng]
- being in the first or early stage of life or growth; youthful; not old: a young woman.
- having the appearance, freshness, vigor, or other qualities of youth.
- of or relating to youth: in one's young days.
- inexperienced or immature.
- not far advanced in years in comparison with another or others.
- junior, as applied to the younger of two persons having the same name: the young Mr. Smith.
- being in an early stage generally, as of existence, progress, operation, development, or maturity; new; early: a young wine; It is a young company, not yet firmly established.
- representing or advocating recent or progressive tendencies, policies, or the like.
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- those who have youth; young persons collectively: the educated young of today; a game for young and old.
- young offspring: a mother hen protecting her young.
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- with young, (of an animal) pregnant.
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Origin of young
before 900; Middle English yong(e), Old English geong; cognate with Dutch jong, German jung, Old Norse ungr, Gothic jungs; akin to Latin juvenis
Synonyms
See more synonyms for young on Thesaurus.com1. growing. Young, youthful, juvenile all refer to lack of age. Young is the general word for that which is undeveloped, immature, and in process of growth: a young colt, child; young shoots of wheat. Youthful has connotations suggesting the favorable characteristics of youth, such as vigor, enthusiasm, and hopefulness: youthful sports, energy, outlook. Juvenile may suggest less desirable characteristics, such as childishness, petulance, idleness, selfishness, or heedlessness ( juvenile behavior ), or it may refer simply to the years, up to the later teens, before legal responsibility: juvenile delinquency; juvenile court; juvenile books.
Antonyms
1. mature, old.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for youngest
Contemporary Examples
Average age ranges from 45 to 65, with her youngest client at 18 and the oldest in her 80s.
Republican Elise Stefanik, 30, of upstate New York, just became the youngest woman ever elected to the House of Representatives.
“The youngest old man any of us knows,” an unnamed friend of Atlantic Publisher David Bradley said of Hughes.
The Rise and Fall of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, America’s Worst Gay Power CoupleJames Kirchick
December 9, 2014
This week, on December 10th, Human Rights Day, she will receive the Nobel Prize—the youngest person ever to be honored.
Wahlberg grew up the youngest of nine children in a broken home in the rough Dorchester section of Boston.
Mark Wahlberg’s Pardon Plea: A Look Back At His Troubling, Violent, and Racist Rap SheetMarlow Stern
December 7, 2014
Historical Examples
You'll find him rocking the cradle of Tippoo Wellington, my youngest son!
I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes.
The eldest was about the age of twelve, the youngest about seven.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
"Well, go on," interposed the youngest and quietest of the group.
Ester Ried Yet SpeakingIsabella Alden
Her sister, Norah, the youngest of the family, had told of her first baby.
DustMr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
young
- having lived, existed, or been made or known for a relatively short timea young man; a young movement; a young country
- (as collective noun; preceded by the)the young
- youthful or having qualities associated with youth; vigorous or livelyshe's very young for her age
- of or relating to youthin my young days
- having been established or introduced for a relatively short timea young member
- in an early stage of progress or development; not far advancedthe day was young
- geography
- (of mountains) formed in the Alpine orogeny and still usually rugged in outline
- another term for youthful (def. 4)
- (often capital) of or relating to a rejuvenated group or movement or one claiming to represent the younger members of the population, esp one adhering to a political ideologyYoung England; Young Socialists
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- (functioning as plural) offspring, esp young animalsa rabbit with her young
- with young (of animals) pregnant
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Word Origin
Old English geong; related to Old Saxon, Old High German iung, Old Norse ungr, Latin iuvenis, Sanskrit yuvan
Young
- Brigham (ˈbrɪɡəm). 1801–77, US Mormon leader, who led the Mormon migration to Utah and founded Salt Lake City (1847)
- Edward. 1683–1765, English poet and dramatist, noted for his Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742–45)
- Lester. 1909–59, US saxophonist and clarinetist. He was a leading early exponent of the tenor saxophone in jazz
- Neil (Percival). born 1945, Canadian rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His albums include Harvest (1972), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Ragged Glory (1990), and Prairie Wind (2005)
- Thomas. 1773–1829, English physicist, physician, and Egyptologist. He helped to establish the wave theory of light by his experiments on optical interference and assisted in the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for youngest
young
n.
"young animals collectively, offspring," late 15c., from young (adj.).
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young
adj.
Old English geong "youthful, young," from Proto-Germanic *jungas (cf. Old Saxon and Old Frisian jung, Old Norse ungr, Middle Dutch jonc, Dutch jong, Old High German and German jung, Gothic juggs), from PIE *juwngkos, from PIE root *yeu- "vital force, youthful vigor" (cf. Sanskrit yuva "young," Latin juvenis "young," Lithuanian jaunas, Old Church Slavonic junu, Russian junyj "young," Old Irish oac, Welsh ieuanc "young").
From c.1830-1850, Young France, Young Italy, etc., were loosely applied to "republican agitators" in various monarchies; also, especially in Young England, Young America, used generally for "typical young person of the nation." For Young Turk, see Turk.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Young
(yŭng)John 1907-1997- British biologist whose experiments with the giant nerve cells of squid contributed to the knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of nerves.
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Young
Thomas 1773-1829- British physician and physicist who in 1801 postulated the three-color theory of color vision. Young also discovered (1801) astigmatism and described accommodation.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Young
[yŭng]
- British physicist and physician who is best known for his contributions to the wave theory of light and his discovery of how the lens of the human eye changes shape to focus on objects of different distances. He also studied surface tension and elasticity, and Young's modulus (a measure of the rigidity of materials) is named for him. He is also credited with the first scientific definition of the word energy.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.