adolescence

From Middle English adolescence, from Old French adolescence, from Latin adolēscentia, from adolēscēns (“young”); see adolescent.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌædəˈlɛsəns/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

adolescence (countable and uncountable, plural adolescences)

1. The transitional period of physical and psychological development between childhood and maturity.

   Synonyms: teendom, teenhood

   During adolescence, the body and mind go through many complex changes, some of which are difficult to deal with.

While adolescence is mostly interchangeable with teendom and teenhood, as it happens during ages ending in -teen, this correspondence is not absolute, so adolescence can be understood as a broader or narrower term depending on the context.

• preadolescence

• adolescent

• “adolescence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “adolescence”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• IPA^(key): [ˈadolɛst͡sɛnt͡sɛ]
• Hyphenation: ado‧les‧cen‧ce

adolescence n

1. adolescence

   Synonym: dospívání

• adolescence in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu
• adolescence in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Learned borrowing from Latin adulēscentia.

• IPA^(key): /a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃s/, /a.dɔ.le.sɑ̃s/

• Audio

  (file)

adolescence f (plural adolescences)

1. adolescence, teenage years, teenagehood

• crise d’adolescence
• préadolescence

• adolescent

• puberté

• “adolescence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Late 13th century, borrowed from Latin adolescentia.

adolescence oblique singular, f (oblique plural adolescences, nominative singular adolescence, nominative plural adolescences)

1. adolescence