adolescent

[ ad-l-es-uhnt ]
See synonyms for: adolescentadolescents on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. growing to manhood or womanhood; youthful.

  2. having the characteristics of adolescence or of an adolescent.

noun
  1. an adolescent person.

Origin of adolescent

1
First recorded in 1475–85; from Latin adolēscent- (stem of adolēscēns “growing up,” present participle of adolēscere ), equivalent to adol(ē)- (see adult) + -ēsc- verb suffix + -ent- adjective suffix; see -esce, -ent

Other words for adolescent

Other words from adolescent

  • ad·o·les·cent·ly, adverb
  • post·ad·o·les·cent, adjective, noun
  • sub·ad·o·les·cent, adjective, noun

Words that may be confused with adolescent

Words Nearby adolescent

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use adolescent in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for adolescent

adolescent

/ (ˌædəˈlɛsənt) /


adjective
  1. of or relating to adolescence

  2. informal behaving in an immature way; puerile

noun
  1. an adolescent person

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