ˈyüth noun
( plural youths -thz, -ths)
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English youthe, from Old English geoguth; akin to Middle Dutch joget youth, Old High German jugund, Gothic junda youth, Old English geong young — more at young
1.
a. : the time of life when one is young ; especially : the period between childhood and maturity
left two little girls who … spent their motherless youth with their widowed father — Havelock Ellis
in his youth … combined cotton and dairy farming with acquiring an education — Current Biography
incongruities of youth and age — John Galsworthy
b. : the early period of existence, growth, or development
following its lively youth the community lapsed into quietude — American Guide Series: Texas
dinosaurian knowledge was still in its youth — W.E.Swinton
many potentially sound animals are ruined … especially in youth — Farming
2.
a. : a young person ; especially : a young male between the ages of adolescence and maturity
at the age of fourteen the youth entered … the office — A.L.Churchill
a youth aged 17 years — Journal American Medical Association
youths with something better than a secondary education — Roy Lewis & Angus Maude
sold … to men, women, youths of both sexes, and even to children — American Book Publishers Council
b. : young persons or creatures — usually plural in constr.
a future for the youth who enter the teaching profession — Education Digest
only seven out of ten youth of high school age are now enrolled — B.H.Alberty
that American youth on the nation's campuses is not given … disappointment — B.G.Gallagher
c. sometimes capitalized : youth personified or youth in general
youth in its search for life's permanent values — British Book News
youth will be served
for youth nothing is insurmountable
3. : the fresh or vigorous condition or appearance of body, mind, or spirit characteristic of the period between childhood and maturity : youthfulness
restore an old man to youth — Sara Jordan
an inevitable symptom of the city's youth and vigor — American Guide Series: Minnesota
these ancient stories have the perennial youth of human charm — H.O.Taylor
4. : the quality or state of being young
succeeded admirably in spite of his extreme youth — F.T.Persons
5. : the first stage into which a cycle of erosion is commonly divided
all the erosional stages from the features of youth to those of old age — V.C.Finch & G.T.Trewartha
Synonyms:
adolescence , puberty , pubescence , youth are frequently used interchangeably to refer to the period between childhood and maturity. youth , the most inclusive of these terms, applies sometimes to the entire period from childhood to maturity, sometimes to the period only between the maturing of the sexual organs and attaining to other types of maturity; more than the other terms youth suggests the vigor, innocence, and ingratiating attributes generally associated with this early period of life and so has come to suggest vigor or fullness of life generally. adolescence designates the same period as youth in its most restricted sense, but carries a stronger implication of immaturity, suggesting the inexperience or awkwardness or mental or emotional instability often characteristic of that period of life; in legal use it designates the period from puberty to full legal age or majority. Strictly, puberty designates the age at which the symptoms of sexual maturing appear, as the growth of beard and alteration of voice range in boys or breast development in girls; legally this age is fixed at fourteen for boys and twelve for girls. More broadly, puberty covers the earlier period of adolescence. pubescence is sometimes used as the equivalent of puberty or more specifically signifies the early years of sexual maturing.