Definition of adolescence Adolescence

/æˌdʌlɛˈsʌns/ - [atdulesuns] - ad•o•les•cence

We found 7 definitions of adolescence from 6 different sources.

What does adolescence mean?

Noun Plural: adolescences
adolescence - the time period between the beginning of puberty and adulthood
		youth the freshness and vitality characteristic of a young person
		time of life a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state
		genital phase, genital stage (psychoanalysis) the fifth sexual and social stage in a person's development occurring during adolescence; interest focuses on sexual activity
adolescence - in the state that someone is in between puberty and adulthood
		immatureness, immaturity not having reached maturity

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adolescence (Noun)
The transitional period of physical and psychological development between childhood and maturity.

adolescence (n.)
The state of growing up from childhood to manhood or womanhood; youth, or the period of life between puberty and maturity, generally considered to be, in the male sex, from fourteen to twenty-one. Sometimes used with reference to the lower animals.

Adolescence is the time between being a child and full adult, that is the period of time during which a person is biologically (physically) adult but emotionally (feelings) not at full maturity. The ages which are considered to be part of adolescence vary by culture, but in the United States, adolescence is usually considered to begin around age 13, and end around 19. In the English language, adolescents (people going through adolescence) are frequently called "teenagers" or "teens", which comes from the end the English words "thirteen" to "nineteen". "Adolescence" is cultural and so does not refer to a fixed time period. The word comes from the Latin verb "adolescere" meaning "to grow up." During this time, a person's body, emotions and academic standing change a lot. When adolescence happens, in America, children usually finish elementary school and enter secondary education, such as middle school or high school.

During this period of life, most children go through the physical stages of puberty, which often begin before a person has reached the age of 13. Most cultures think of people as becoming adults at various ages of the teenage years. For example, Jewish tradition thinks that people are adults at age 13, and this change is celebrated in the Bar-Mitzvah (for boys) and the Bat-Mitzvah (for girls) ceremony. Usually, there is a formal age of majority when adolescents formally (under the law) become adults.