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)

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

   Synonyms: teendom, teenhood, hog age

   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.

• adolescent

• “adolescence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “adolescence”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

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

adolescence n

1. adolescence

   Synonym: dospívání

• “adolescence”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “adolescence”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 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