Adolescence

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌædəˈlɛsəns/

Definitions

1. The transitional period of physical and psychological development between childhood and adulthood, typically occurring during the teenage years
2. A stage of growth marked by significant emotional and physical changes that occur between childhood and entering adulthood, usually characterized by the teenage experience
3. This period involves complex transformations in identity, social roles, and physical maturity as individuals shift from childhood into adulthood

Etymology: Latin "adolescere" meant "to grow up" or "to grow toward maturity," built from "ad-" ("toward") and "alescere," an inceptive form of "alere" ("to nourish"). So the root idea is closer to being fed and raised than to any notion of youth as a separate stage of life. The Latin noun "adolescentia" was the state of growing up, and "adolescens" was the person doing so, which is why the same word could describe a young man of nearly any age up to around thirty in classical usage. The word reached English through Middle English from Old French "adolescence," keeping its original sense of the process of growing up rather than a fixed span of years. The modern meaning of a distinct teenage period is a much later narrowing: the specific idea of adolescence as a life stage with its own psychology took shape in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when psychologists such as G. Stanley Hall made it a subject of study.

Synonyms: youth, teenage years

Antonyms: adulthood