youth

From Middle English youthe, youhthe, ȝouthe, ȝewethe, ȝuȝethe, ȝeoȝuthe, from Old English ġeoguþ (“the state of being young; youth”), from West Germanic *juwunþa, from Proto-Germanic *jugunþō, *jugunþiz (“youth”), corresponding to young +‎ -th. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Juugd, West Frisian jeugd, Dutch jeugd, German Low German Jöögd, German Jugend.

• IPA^(key): /juːθ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /juθ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -uːθ

youth (countable and uncountable, plural youths)

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.

   • 2013 January 1, Brian Hayes, “Father of Fractals”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, page 62:

     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.

   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.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 52, in The Moon and Sixpence‎, OCLC 22207227:

     […] 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

• young

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