puberty

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French puberté, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin pubertas (“the age of maturity, manhood”), from pubes (“youth, pubic hair, youthfulness”), puber (“grown up, of mature age, adult; of plants, downy, pubescent”)

Noun

puberty (countable and uncountable, plural puberties)

1. A developmental phase brought about by the action of hormones as part of the maturing process. For humans, there are three in total.
   1. (more common) The process of sexual development that produces secondary sex characteristics and makes a person capable of reproducing sexually.
   • 2014, Lewis Wolpert, Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man? →ISBN:

     Girls undergoing puberty show an increase in the total output of cortisol, which is related to stress, while boys show little increase.

2. The age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction.
   • 2009, The Development of Children Study Guide →ISBN, page 241:

     As shown in Figure 14.4 of the textbook, children reach puberty at different ages in different countries; within those nations, children living in cities tend to reach puberty earlier than those living in rural areas.

3. The period when a plant begins to flower.

Meronyms

• (process of adolescence): thelarche, pubarche, growth spurt, menarche, gonadarche, adrenarche

Related terms

• peripubescent
• postpubescent
• prepubescent
• puberulent
• pubes
• pubescent
• pubic
• pubis

Translations

age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction

• Arabic: بُلُوغ m (bulūḡ)
• Armenian: սեռական հասունություն (hy) (seṙakan hasunutʻyun)
• Asturian: pubertá f
• Catalan: pubertat f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 青春期 (zh) (qīngchūnqī), 思春期 (zh) (sīchūnqī), 發情／发情 (zh) (fāqíng), 发情 (zh) (fāqíng), 發身／发身 (zh) (fāshēn), 发身 (zh) (fāshēn), 發育期／发育期 (zh), 发育期 (zh) (fāyùqī)

• Czech: puberta (cs) f
• Danish: pubertet (da) c
• Dutch: puberteit (nl)
• Esperanto: pubereco
• Faroese: kynsbúning f, (colloquial) pubertetur m
• Finnish: murrosikä (fi), puberteetti (fi), varhaismurrosikä
• French: puberté (fr) f
• Galician: puberdade (gl) f
• Georgian: სქესობრივი სიმწიფე (skesobrivi simc̣ipe)
• German: Pubertät (de) f, Geschlechtsreife (de) f
• Greek: εφηβεία (el) f (efiveía)

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

• Hungarian: serdülőkor (hu), pubertás (hu)
• Italian: pubertà (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 思春期 (ししゅんき, shishunki)
• Khmer: ភាពពេញវ័យ (phiəppɨñvɨy)
• Korean: 사춘기 (ko) (sachun'gi) (思春期 (ko))
• Latin: pūbertās f
• Macedonian: пубертет m (pubertet)
• Maori: pūhuruhurutanga
• Marathi: पौगंडावस्था n (paugaṇḍāvasthā)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pubertet m

  Nynorsk: pubertet m

• Polish: dojrzewanie płciowe n, pokwitanie (pl) c, okres dojrzewania m
• Portuguese: puberdade (pt) f
• Romanian: pubertate (ro) f
• Russian: полова́я зре́лость f (polovája zrélostʹ), полово́е созрева́ние n (polovóje sozrevánije)
• Serbo-Croatian: pubertet (sh)
• Spanish: pubertad (es) f
• Swedish: pubertet (sv) c
• Tagalog: mulansuplingan
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: dậy thì (vi)

Further reading

• “puberty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “puberty”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.