youth
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: jo͞oth
rhymes: -uːθ
ipa: /juːθ/
ipa: /jʉwθ/
ipa: /jʉːθ/
note: Indic
ipa: /jut̪ʰ/
enpr: jo͝oth
rhymes: -ʊθ
note: Indic
ipa: /jʊt̪ʰ/
enpr: jŭth
rhymes: -ʌθ
note: Indic
ipa: /jɐt̪ʰ/
Forms: form: youths
form: yought
form: youthe
Etymology: From Middle English youthe, youghte, ȝouþe, from Old English ġeoguþ (“the state of being young; youth”), from Proto-West Germanic *juwunþa, from Proto-Germanic *jugunþō, *jugunþiz (“youth”), corresponding to young + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Juugd, West Frisian jeugd, Dutch jeugd, German Low German Jöögd, German Jugend.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, “The Purchase Price”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was nothing between youth and age.
ref: 1936 Feb. 15, Ernest Hemingway, letter to Maxwell Perkins
text: Her youth and beauty attracted him to her.
synonyms: word: juvenility
word: youngness
word: youngth
word: youthfulness
antonyms: age
dotage
old age
senility
glosses: The quality or state of being young.
examples: text: Make the most of your youth, it will not last forever.
text: I made many mistakes in my youth, but learned from them all.
text: 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.
ref: 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 35:
text: Toward the end of the war, Benoit was sent off on his own with forged papers; he wound up working as a horse groom at a chalet in the Loire valley. Mandelbrot describes this harrowing youth with great sangfroid.
ref: 2013 January 24, Brian Hayes, “Father of Fractals”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, page 62:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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
glosses: A young person.
examples: text: […]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.
ref: 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, pages 274–275:
synonyms: boy
young man
glosses: A young man; a male adolescent or young adult.
examples: text: The actual brides- and grooms-to-be are not in attendance—many youth would be embarrassed by their parents’ matchmaking efforts, and often do not live in the same city anyway.
ref: 2012 March, Mary Bergstrom, “Tipping Gender Scales: From Boys Rule to Girl Power About Face”, in All Eyes East: Lessons from the Front Lines of Marketing to China’s Youth, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 77:
synonyms: adolescents
kids
teenagers
teens
young people
youngsters
glosses: Young persons, collectively.
raw_tags: used as plural or singular
Derived terms: fountain of youth
hilltop youth
in the flower of one's youth
middle youth
mid youth
yoof
youth academy
youth bulge
youth center
youth centre
youth-centric
youth club
youth court
youth crew
youth crime
youth culture
youth custody centre
youth detention center
youth detention centre
youthful
youth group
youth hostel
youth is wasted on the young
youthly
youth movement
youth-on-age
youth organization
youthwards
youth work
youth worker
youthy
Related terms: young