youth
Pronunciation Noun

youth

  1. (uncountable) The quality or state of being young.
    Her youth and beauty attracted him to her.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0045 ↗:
      Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
    Synonyms: juvenility, youthfulness
    Antonyms: age, dotage, old age, senility
  2. (uncountable) 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 adulthood.
    • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 49:
      I don't find the pose of careless youth charming and engaging any more than you find the pose of careworn age fascinating and eccentric, I should imagine.
    Make the most of your youth, it will not last forever.
    I made many mistakes in my youth, but learned from them all.
  3. (countable) A young person.
    There was a group of youths hanging around the parking lot, reading fashion magazines and listening to music.
    Synonyms: adolescent, child, kid, lad, teen, teenager, youngster
    Antonyms: adult, grown-up
  4. (countable) A young man; a male adolescent or young adult.
    • […] and then a youth appeared—no one quite knew where from or to whom he belonged—but he settled down with them in a happy-go-lucky way, and they all lived together.
    Synonyms: boy, young man
  5. (uncountable, used in plural form) Young persons, collectively.
    Synonyms: adolescents, kids, teenagers, teens, young people, youngsters
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