adolescent

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ăd'əlĕsʹənt, IPA^(key): /ˌædəˈlɛsənt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Adjective

adolescent (comparative more adolescent, superlative most adolescent)

2. Of, relating to, or at the age of adolescence; at the stage between being a child and an adult.
   • 1785, William Cowper, Tirocinium:

     Schools, unless discipline were doubly strong, / Detain their adolescent charge too long.

   • 2019, Bridget Sweet, Thinking Outside the Voice Box, page 71:

     Again, voice change is not easy and vulnerability plays a big part, but if choral teachers and adolescent singers approach it with the right mindframe, the experience can be empowering, enlightening, and restorative for all involved.

Derived terms

• adolescently
• adultescent
• mid-adolescent
• middlescent
• nonadolescent
• periadolescent
• postadolescent
• preadolescent
• subadolescent

 

Related terms

• adolescence
• adult

Translations

characteristic of adolescence

• Asturian: adolescente
• Bulgarian: юношески (bg) (junošeski)
• Catalan: adolescent (ca)
• Esperanto: adoleska
• Finnish: nuori (fi)
• French: adolescent (fr)
• Galician: adolescente (gl)
• Greek: έφηβος (el) m (éfivos)
• Hungarian: kamasz (hu), kamaszkori
• Ido: adolecanta (io)
• Italian: adolescente (it)
• Polish: nastoletni (pl), dojrzewający, adolescencyjny (pl), młodociany (pl)
• Portuguese: adolescente (pt)
• Romagnol: adulescént
• Romanian: adolescent (ro) m
• Russian: подростко́вый (ru) (podrostkóvyj), ю́ношеский (ru) (júnošeskij)
• Scottish Gaelic: ògail
• Slovene: mladoleten
• Spanish: adolescente (es)
• Telugu: కౌమార (kaumāra)

Noun

adolescent (plural adolescents)

2. A person who is in adolescence; someone who has reached puberty but is not yet an adult.
   • 2014, Ian McEwan, The Children Act, Penguin Random House (2018), page 66:

     ‘A healthy adolescent might be expected to produce five hundred billion blood cells a day.’

Translations

a teenager

• Arabic: فَتًى m (fatan), فَتَاة f (fatāh)
• Armenian: պատանի (hy) (patani)
• Azerbaijani: yeniyetmə
• Bashkir: үҫмер (üśmer)
• Belarusian: падле́так m (padljétak)
• Bulgarian: юноша (bg) (junoša), девойка (bg) (devojka)
• Catalan: adolescent (ca) m or f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 青少年 (zh) (qīngshàonián), (boy) 少年 (zh) (shàonián), (girl) 姑娘 (zh) (gūniang)

• Czech: dospívající m, puberťák (cs) m, adolescent (cs) m
• Esperanto: adoleskulo, adoleskanto
• Estonian: noor (et), teismeline
• Finnish: nuori (fi)
• Galician: adolescente (gl) m or f, rapaz (gl) m, rapazolo m, mozo (gl) m, rapazola f, rapariga f, rapaza f, moza f
• German: Jugendliche (de) m
• Hebrew: נַעַר (he) m (ná'ar), מִתְבַּגֵּר m (mitbaggér)
• Hungarian: kamasz (hu)
• Ido: adolecanto (io)
• Italian: adolescente (it) m or f
• Japanese: 青春 (ja) (せいしゅん, seishun), (boy) 少年 (ja) (しょうねん, shōnen), (girl) 少女 (ja) (しょうじょ, shōjo)
• Korean: 10대 (10dae), 청소년 (ko) (cheongsonyeon)
• Latin: adulēscēns (la) c
• Macedonian: малоле́тник m (malolétnik), малолетничка f (maloletnička), младинец (mladinec)
• Malay: remaja
• Persian: برنا (fa) (bornâ)
• Polish: nastolatek (pl) m, nastolatka (pl), adolescent (pl) m
• Portuguese: adolescente (pt) m or f, rapaz (pt) m, rapariga (pt) f, moço (pt) m, moça (pt) f
• Romanian: adolescent (ro) m, adolescentă (ro) f
• Russian: подро́сток (ru) m (podróstok), (boy) ю́ноша (ru) m (júnoša), (girl) де́вушка (ru) f (dévuška)
• Scottish Gaelic: òigear m, (male) òganach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: adolèscent (sh) m

• Slovene: mladoletnik m, mladoletnica f
• Spanish: adolescente (es) m or f, muchacho (es) m, muchacha (es) f, chico (es) m, chica (es) f
• Swedish: tonåring (sv) c
• Turkish: ergen (tr)
• Tày: léo
• Ukrainian: підлі́ток (uk) m (pidlítok)

Further reading

• “adolescent”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “adolescent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “adolescent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• WHO Guidelines on the Pharmacological Treatment of Persisting Pain in Children with Medical Illnesses, (2012) , World Health Organization

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin adulēscentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ə.ðu.ləˈsen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ə.ðo.ləˈsent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [a.ðo.leˈsent]

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

adolescent m or f (masculine and feminine plural adolescents)

1. adolescent

Noun

adolescent m or f by sense (plural adolescents)

1. teenager

Related terms

• adolescència

Further reading

• “adolescent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈadolɛst͡sɛnt]
• Hyphenation: ado‧les‧cent

Noun

adolescent m anim (female equivalent adolescentka)

1. adolescent

   Synonyms: dospívající, puberťák

Declension

Declension of adolescent (hard masculine animate)

	singular	plural
nominative	adolescent	adolescenti
genitive	adolescenta	adolescentů
dative	adolescentovi, adolescentu	adolescentům
accusative	adolescenta	adolescenty
vocative	adolescente	adolescenti
locative	adolescentovi, adolescentu	adolescentech
instrumental	adolescentem	adolescenty

Related terms

• adolescence
• adolescentní

 

Further reading

• “adolescent”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French adolescent, from Latin adolēscēns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌaː.doː.ləˈsɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ado‧les‧cent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

adolescent m or f (plural adolescenten, diminutive adolescentje n)

1. adolescent

   Synonym: jongere

Derived terms

• adolescentie

Descendants

• → Indonesian: adolesen

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin adolēscentem, present participle of adolēscō.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

adolescent (feminine adolescente, masculine plural adolescents, feminine plural adolescentes)

1. adolescent
   • 1866, Eugène Sue, L'alouette du casque:

     Au retour de Victoria, si belle de sa beauté de quinze ans, j’avais son âge ; je devins, quoique à peine adolescent, follement épris d’elle ; je cachai soigneusement cet amour, autant par timidité que par suite du respect que m’inspirait, malgré le fraternel attachement dont elle me donnait chaque jour des preuves, cette sérieuse jeune fille, qui rapportait du collège des druidesses je ne sais quoi d’imposant, de pensif et de mystérieux.

     When Victoria returned in her dazzling beauty of fifteen years I was of the same age and although hardly of the age of puberty myself, I fell distractedly in love with her. I carefully concealed my feelings, out of friendship as well as by reason of the respect that, despite the fraternal attachment of which she every day gave me fresh proof, that serious young maid, who brought with her from the college of the female druids an indescribably imposing, pensive and mysterious appearance, inspired in me.

Noun

adolescent m (plural adolescents, feminine adolescente)

1. adolescent
   • 1841, François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe:

     Je me mis à tirer l’horoscope de l’adolescente vendangeuse : vieillira-t-elle au pressoir, mère de famille obscure et heureuse ? Sera-t-elle emmenée les camps par un caporal ? Deviendra-t-elle la proie de quelque Don Juan ? La villageoise enlevée aime son ravisseur autant d’étonnement que d’amour ; il la transporte dans un palais de marbre sur le détroit de Messine, sous un palmier au bord d’une source, en face de la mer qui déploie ses flots d’azur, et de l’Etna qui jette des flammes.

     I set to drawing up the horoscope of the adolescent fruit-picker: will she grow old at the cider-press, the mother of an obscure but happy family? Will she be led off to the camps by some corporal? Will she fall prey to some Don Juan? The seduced village girl loves her ravisher as well as the astonishment of love; he transports her to a palace of marble on the Straits of Messina, beneath a palm-tree beside a fountain, facing the sea with azure wave, and Etna spouting flame.

Related terms

• adolescence
• adulte

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

adolēscent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of adolēscō

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin adolēscēns. First attested in the 19th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.dɔˈlɛs.t͡sɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst͡sɛnt
• Syllabification: a‧do‧les‧cent

Noun

adolescent m pers

1. adolescent (a person who is in adolescence; someone who has reached puberty but is not yet an adult)

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dziecko

Declension

Declension of adolescent

	singular	plural
nominative	adolescent	adolescenci/adolescenty (deprecative)
genitive	adolescenta	adolescentów
dative	adolescentowi	adolescentom
accusative	adolescenta	adolescentów
instrumental	adolescentem	adolescentami
locative	adolescencie	adolescentach
vocative	adolescencie	adolescenci

Related terms

adjective

• adolescencyjny

 

noun

• adolescencja

 

Further reading

• adolescent in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• adolescent in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French adolescent.

Noun

adolescent m (plural adolescenți)

1. teenager

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	adolescent	adolescentul		adolescenti	adolescentii
genitive-dative	adolescent	adolescentului		adolescenti	adolescentilor
vocative	adolescentule			adolescentilor