adolescence

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌædəˈlɛsəns/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

adolescence (countable and uncountable, plural adolescences)

2. The transitional period of physical and psychological development between childhood and maturity, beginning at the onset of puberty and with an endpoint defined either legally (at the age of majority, such as 18 in many jurisdictions) or psychocognitively (at various ages, depending on individual experience).

   Synonym: hog age (US, rare, dated, informal)

   Coordinate terms: childhood, preteenhood, young adulthood, adulthood, middle age, seniorhood, elderhood

   Near-synonyms: teenagehood, teenhood, teenagerhood, teenagedom, teenagerdom, teendom

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

   • 2020 August 5, Francesca Spinelli, “Meet David: born in France, raised in Belgium, facing removal to the DRC”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 January 2021:

     So lawyers started filing separate asylum requests for the children, arguing that reintegrating in countries they barely knew, after spending their childhood or adolescence in Belgium, would not only be impossible but would expose them to serious risks.

Usage notes

• 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.

Derived terms

• middlescence
• postadolescence
• preadolescence

Related terms

• adolescent

Translations

period between childhood and maturity

• Arabic: مُرَاهَقَة f (murāhaqa)
• Armenian: պատանեկություն (hy) (patanekutʻyun)
• Asturian: adolescencia f
• Belarusian: юна́цтва n (junáctva), маладо́сць f (maladóscʹ)
• Bulgarian: юношество (junošestvo)
• Catalan: adolescència (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: siàu-liân-kî

  Mandarin: 青少年 (zh) (qīngshàonián)

• Cornish: lanketh f
• Czech: dospívání n
• Danish: opvækst c
• Esperanto: plenkreskiĝeco, adolesko
• Estonian: noorukiiga
• Finnish: murrosikä (fi), nuoruusikä, nuoruus (fi)
• French: adolescence (fr) f
• Galician: adolescencia (gl) f
• German: Adoleszenz (de) f, Pubertät (de) f, Flegeljahre (de) pl, Flegelalter n
• Greek: εφηβεία (el) f (efiveía)

  Ancient Greek: ἥβη f (hḗbē), ἐφηβεία f (ephēbeía)

• Hebrew: גיל ההתבגרות (he) (gil ha'hitbagrut)
• Hungarian: kamaszkor (hu)
• Ido: adoleco (io)
• Indonesian: adolesens (id)
• Irish: óige f, ógántacht f
• Italian: adolescenza (it) f
• Japanese: 青年期 (ja) (せいねんき, seinenki)
• Kabuverdianu: mosindadi
• Korean: 청년기 (cheongnyeon'gi), 청춘기 (cheongchun'gi)
• Macedonian: малоле́тство n (malolétstvo)
• Māori: taiohinga, taitamarikitanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oppvekst m

  Nynorsk: oppvekst m, oppvokster m

• Polish: dojrzewanie (pl) n, młodość (pl) f, adolescencja (pl) f
• Portuguese: adolescência (pt) f
• Romanian: adolescență (ro) f
• Russian: ю́ность (ru) f (júnostʹ), мо́лодость (ru) f (mólodostʹ), о́трочество (ru) n (ótročestvo) (literary)
• Scottish Gaelic: òige f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: адолесцѐнција f

  Latin: adolescèncija (sh) f

• Slovak: dospievanie n
• Slovene: mladostništvo n
• Spanish: adolescencia (es) f
• Telugu: కౌమారము (te) (kaumāramu)
• Turkish: ergenlik (tr), ilk gençlik (tr), büluğ (tr)
• Ukrainian: ю́ність (uk) f (júnistʹ), мо́лодість f (mólodistʹ)
• Vietnamese: thanh thiếu niên, tuổi thần tiên, tuổi ô mai, tuổi teen
• Volapük: tidaülatim
• Welsh: llencyndod m, adolesens m

Further reading

• “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.

Czech

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin adulēscentia. First attested in the 20th century.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

adolescence n

1. adolescence

   Synonym: dospívání

Declension

Declension of adolescence (soft feminine)

	singular	plural
nominative	adolescence	adolescence
genitive	adolescence	adolescencí
dative	adolescenci	adolescencím
accusative	adolescenci	adolescence
vocative	adolescence	adolescence
locative	adolescenci	adolescencích
instrumental	adolescencí	adolescencemi

Related terms

• adolescent
• adolescentní

Further reading

• “adolescence”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “adolescence”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin adulēscentia.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Paris)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Étienne)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Massy)):

  (file)

Noun

adolescence f (plural adolescences)

1. adolescence, teenage years, teenagehood

Derived terms

• crise d'adolescence
• préadolescence

Related terms

• adolescent

See also

• puberté

Further reading

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

Old French

Etymology

Late 13th century, borrowed from Latin adolescentia.

Noun

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

1. adolescence