adolescent
Adolescent is defined as a person who is in between puberty and adulthood.
(noun)A high school student is an example of an adolescent.
The definition of adolescent is immature or like a teenager.
(adjective)Going out and drinking alcohol every night is an example of adolescent behavior.
See adolescent in Webster's New World College Dictionary
adjective
- developing from childhood to maturity; growing up
- of or characteristic of adolescence; youthful, exuberant, immature, unsettled, etc.
Origin: Fr < L adolescens, prp. of adolescere, to come to maturity, be kindled, burn < *adalescere < ad-, to + alescere, to increase, grow up < alere, to feed, sustain; akin to OE ald (see old), Goth alan, to grow
noun
See adolescent in American Heritage Dictionary 4
adjective
- Of, relating to, or undergoing adolescence. See Synonyms at young.
- Characteristic of adolescence; immature: an adolescent sense of humor.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English
Origin: , from Old French
Origin: , from Latin adolēscēns, adolēscent-
Origin: , present participle of adolēscere, to grow up
Origin: : ad-, ad-
Origin: + alēscere, to grow
Origin: , inchoative of alere, to nourish; see al-2 in Indo-European roots
. Word History: The adolescent grows up to become the adult. The words adolescent and adult ultimately come from forms of the same Latin word, adolēscere, meaning “to grow up.” The present participle of adolēscere, adolēscēns, from which adolescent derives, means “growing up,” while the past participle adultus, the source of adult, means “grown up.” Appropriately enough, adolescent, first recorded in English in a work written perhaps in 1440, seems to have come into the language before adult, first recorded in a work published in 1531.Learn more about adolescent
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