Adulescent

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A term for an individual experiencing the developmental transition from the last stages of teenage years to early adulthood, often characterized by a mix of youthful traits and emerging responsibilities
2. This describes someone in the complex stage that lies between being a teenager and entering full adulthood, showcasing a blend of adolescent behaviors and adult aspirations
3. A word used to identify a person in the transitional phase between adolescence and adulthood, exhibiting both youthful characteristics and the beginnings of adult duties

Etymology: "Adulescent" is a blend of "adult" and "adolescent," and it describes someone who is no longer a child but has not yet fully settled into adulthood. The blend is built the way many modern coinages are: two familiar words are fused, with the start of one and the end of the other combined into a single new form. Here, "adult" supplies the notion of grown-up status while "adolescent" supplies the idea of youth still in progress. The word exists in an alternative spelling, "adultescent," which shows the blend in its most transparent form, with the full "adult" followed by the "-escent" ending of "adolescent." The shorter spelling "adulescent" is the more compact version of the same blend, and it is the form the user has asked about.

Synonyms: youthful, teenage, immature, juvenile, young

Antonyms: mature, adult, senior, aged, experienced