AskDefine | Define youth

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The Collaborative Dictionary

Youth \Youth\ ([=u]th), n.; pl. Youths ([=u]ths; 264) or collectively Youth. [OE. youthe, youh[thorn]e, [yogh]uhe[eth]e, [yogh]uwe[eth]e, [yogh]eo[yogh]e[eth]e, AS. geogu[eth], geogo[eth]; akin to OS. jugu[eth], D. jeugd, OHG. jugund, G. jugend, Goth. junda. [root]281. See Young.] [1913 Webster]
The quality or state of being young; youthfulness; juvenility. "In my flower of youth." --Milton. [1913 Webster] Such as in his face Youth smiled celestial. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
The part of life that succeeds to childhood; the period of existence preceding maturity or age; the whole early part of life, from childhood, or, sometimes, from infancy, to manhood. [1913 Webster] He wondered that your lordship Would suffer him to spend his youth at home. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Those who pass their youth in vice are justly condemned to spend their age in folly. --Rambler. [1913 Webster]
A young person; especially, a young man. [1913 Webster] Seven youths from Athens yearly sent. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
Young persons, collectively. [1913 Webster] It is fit to read the best authors to youth first. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster] [1913 Webster]

Word Net

youth

Noun

1 a young person (especially a young man or boy) [syn: young person, younker, spring chicken]
2 young people collectively; "rock music appeals to the young"; "youth everywhere rises in revolt" [syn: young] [ant: aged]
3 the time of life between childhood and maturity
4 early maturity; the state of being young or immature or inexperienced
5 an early period of development; "during the youth of the project" [syn: early days]
6 the freshness and vitality characteristic of a young person [syn: youthfulness, juvenility]

Moby Thesaurus

adolescence, adolescent, adolescents, awkward age, baby, babyhood, beginnings, birth, boy, boyhood, bub, bubba, buck, bud, buddy, callowness, chick, child, childhood, childkind, children, chit, colt, cradle, cub, damsel, demoiselle, dewiness, fellow, fledgling, freshman year, genesis, girl, girlhood, greenness, hobbledehoy, hopeful, immaturity, inception, inchoation, incipience, incipiency, incunabula, inexperience, infancy, infant, junior, juvenal, juvenile, juveniles, juvenility, kid, kids, lad, laddie, lass, lassie, little kids, mademoiselle, maid, maiden, manchild, master, minor, minority, moppet, muchacho, nascence, nascency, nativity, new generation, origin, origination, parturition, pregnancy, prime, puberty, pubescence, pubescent, pup, puppy, rising generation, salad days, sapling, schoolboy, schoolgirl, slip, small fry, sonny, sonny boy, sprig, spring, springtide, springtime, stripling, tad, teen, teenager, teener, teenybopper, tots, unripeness, whelp, whippersnapper, young, young blood, young fry, young hopeful, young man, young people, young person, younger, youngest, youngling, youngster, youngsters, youthfulness, youthhood

English

Etymology

ġeoguþ, from West Germanic *juwunþ-, from a Germanic base corresponding to young + -th. Cognate with Dutch jeugd, German Jugend.

Pronunciation

Noun

  1. The quality or state of being young.
  2. The part of life following childhood; the period of existence preceding maturity or age; the whole early part of life, from childhood, or, sometimes, from infancy, to manhood.
  3. A young person; especially, a young man.
  4. (used in plural form) Young persons, collectively.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

quality or state of being young
part of life following childhood
young person
young man
young persons, collectively
''For other uses, see Youth (disambiguation)
Youth is defined by Webster's New World Dictionary as, "The time of life when one is young; especially: a: the period between childhood and maturity b: the early period of existence, growth, or development."

Usage

Around the world the terms "youth", "adolescent", "teenager", and "young person" are interchanged, often meaning the same thing, occasionally differentiated. Youth generally refers to a time of life that is neither childhood nor adulthood, but rather, somewhere in-between. Youth also identifies a particular mindset of attitude, as in "He is very youthful". The term youth is also related to being young.
"This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease." - Robert Kennedy
Youth is an alternative word to the scientifically-oriented adolescent and the common terms of teen and teenager. Another common title for youth is young person or young people.

Age limits

The age in which a person is considered a "youth," and thus eligible for special treatment under the law and throughout society varies around the world.

See also

References

youth in Bulgarian: Младост
youth in Danish: Ungdom
youth in German: Jugend
youth in Spanish: Juventud
youth in Esperanto: Junaĝo
youth in French: Jeunesse
youth in Dutch: Jeugd
youth in Japanese: 青年
youth in Polish: Młodzież
youth in Russian: Молодёжь
youth in Serbian: Omladina
youth in Swedish: Ungdom
youth in Tamil: இளமை
youth in Thai: เยาวชน
youth in Turkish: Gençlik
youth in Chinese: 青少年
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