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adolescence

[ad-l-es-uhns]

noun

the transitional period between puberty and adulthood in human development, extending mainly over the teen years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached; youth.

the process or state of growing to maturity.

a period or stage of development, as of a society, preceding maturity.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French < Latin adolēscentia. See adolescent, -ence

Can be confused: adolescence, adolescents (see synonym note at adolescent).

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To adolescence

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Adolescence is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Example Sentences

Geographic is a fascinating exploration of the science illuminating how the brain's neuronal wiring evolves as adolescence crests.

Mine has been a wide variety of colors, mostly during my adolescence.

Her adolescence was punctuated by a few run-ins with the law.

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Geographic is a fascinating exploration of the science illuminating how the brain's neuronal wiring evolves as adolescence crests.

Mine has been a wide variety of colors, mostly during my adolescence.

Her adolescence was punctuated by a few run-ins with the law.

Have students ask adults for examples of slang words they used in their adolescence.

Fat cells in males also do not tend to multiply after adolescence.

Skinny boys and girls on the verge of adolescence peered warily into roadside shadows.

Newsroom layoffs have become increasingly common as the newspaper industry learns to cope with its awkward online adolescence.

Yet our whole modern understanding of adolescence is there to be found in this play.

From adolescence to high school to college, the technology literally becomes almost this great equalizer.

More fundamentally, the structure of representative government keeps citizens in civic adolescence.

Even the physical city seems to be undergoing a kind of defiant adolescence.

Again, this points to the function of peer influence during adolescence.

Relationships during adolescence are usually bounded by a mutual understanding that they involve limited commitment.

To some extent, not sleeping enough is a normal part of adolescence.

The standards of adulthood should be an abiding rebuke to the dispositions of adolescence.

It is my sincere hope that such wonders as this new lizard survive the area's adolescence.

Adolescence for chimpanzees, as for humans, is a trying time.

Symptoms do not typically show up until late adolescence or early adulthood.

Just as important was that the majority of patients treated during childhood or adolescence can be devastating for the economy.

But there's one particular vice that pols seem to be the only ones to maintain after adolescence.

With the birds putting on weight at a rate of a fifth of an ounce a day, that's a long and worrying adolescence.

Other forms don't present until adolescence or young adulthood.

One odd remnant of the time that higher ed was cheap is the notion that college years represent an extended adolescence.

But his outlook was also shaped by his odd adolescence.

They will still have to grow through childhood and adolescence to adulthood.

There are birthings, maturative events, adolescence and launching.

But those cravings tend to wane as kids reach adolescence.

We typically wait until early adolescence to introduce.

To remove these names would mean leaving behind my childhood, my adolescence and my young-adult years.

Schizophrenia generally manifests itself during late adolescence or early adulthood.

The decade of wandering that frequently occurs between adolescence and adulthood is a sensible response to modern conditions.

The clone would go through childhood and adolescence with the same life-shaping unpredictability as any kid.

Lengthy television viewing in adolescence may raise the risk for depression in young adulthood, according to a new report.

Some of these people weren't properly out of adolescence.

Adolescence is a normal part of growing up and joining the adult world.

I've lost more than a couple friends to the ravages of adolescence and the grind of.

It's worth the pain when you consider the pain saved by skipping adolescence.

Adolescence is characterized by dramatic physical changes moving the individual from childhood into physical maturity.

Up to the year my stepfather died, he never left me alone about my weight, all through my adolescence and adulthood.

The second is that something really has changed in adolescence since the advent of the internet.

There is an intensity in adolescence that you lose as you get older.

The clothing choices are indicative of a much deeper problem, which involves prolonged adolescence and lack of good role models.

The disease is thought to have genetic links but usually does not manifest itself until adolescence or early adulthood.

Relationships that shut down in adolescence can cause boys to become taciturn, emotionally disconnected men, a professor says.

Women often start getting migraines in adolescence as their hormones kick.

It was the larger threat that you would not make it through adolescence at all.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

adolescence (ˌædəˈlɛsəns)

—n
	the period in human development that occurs between the beginning of puberty and adulthood

[C15: via Old French from Latin adolēscentia, from adolēscere to grow up, from alēscere to grow, from alēre to feed, nourish]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

adolescence

early 15c., from O.Fr. adolescence (13c.), from L. adolescentia, noun of state from adolescentem (see adolescent).

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

adolescence ad·o·les·cence (ād'l-ěs'əns)
n.
The period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to complete growth and maturity.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

adolescence

(ād'l-ěs'əns) Pronunciation Key
The period of physical and psychological development from puberty to the onset of adulthood.

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"Adolescence represents an inner emotional upheaval, a struggle between the eternal human wish to cling to the past and the equally powerful wish to get on with the future."

-Louise J. Kaplan

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