adolescent
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
relating to the time in life when you are growing into an adult.
pertaining to the period of adolescence or characteristic of a person in that stage.
Simple“The school offers special programs to help with adolescent mental health.”
In context“The study focuses on adolescent brain development and how it influences risk-taking behavior during the high school years.”
- 02 C1 Advanced
acting in a way that is silly or not mature, like a teenager.
displaying a lack of maturity or sophistication; often used pejoratively to describe adult behavior.
Simple“The two grown men were having an adolescent argument about a video game.”
In context“The critic dismissed the film's humor as adolescent, noting that it relied heavily on cheap gags rather than clever writing.”
Antonyms
Usage adolescent mental
“It would be impossible for me to think about my adolescent relationship to reading, and my relationship as an adult to language, without Lorca.”
“Christie Spessard’s play has verve, capturing the extremes of adolescent life and competitive sport.”
First attested ?1440, from Middle English adolescent, from Middle French adolescent or directly from Latin adolescentem, accusative form of adolescens, present participle of adolēscere (“to become adult, grow up”), from ad- (“to”) + alēscere (“to grow or become nourished”). The adjective first appeared in 1785.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.