Meaning & use
adult
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person who has finished growing up and is legally considered mature, usually from eighteen years old.
Grammar: Has a plural: adults. Often contrasted with child.
Patterns
- an adult with something
- adults and children
Two adults and three children shared the table.
Every adult in the building has to sign the form.
As an adult, she looks back on school days with fondness.
nouncountablebiology
A fully grown animal or plant that is able to reproduce.
Grammar: Used in biology, often contrasted with young or juvenile.
Patterns
- an adult of a species
The adult lays her eggs on the underside of leaves.
Adults of this species can live for thirty years.
Young birds stay near the nest until they become adults.
adjectivebefore a noun
Fully grown or mature, or intended for people who are no longer children.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: an adult male, adult education.
Patterns
- adult life
- adult education
The adult lion stands about four feet tall.
She took an adult education class at night.
He had a hard time adjusting to adult life.
adjectivebefore a nouneuphemistic
Containing sexual content and suitable only for grown-ups.
Grammar: Used before nouns such as content, film or website.
Patterns
- adult content
- adult film
The site requires visitors to confirm they can view adult content.
The movie has an adult rating because of its violence and language.
Parents installed software to block adult websites.
Word forms
| plural | adults |
|---|
Common combinations
- consenting adult
- Two consenting adults can make their own choices.
- responsible adult
- Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
- young adult
- The library has a section for young adult novels.
- adult education
- He joined an adult education class in French.
- fully grown adult
- A fully grown adult elephant can weigh several tons.
- adult supervision
- The pool is closed without adult supervision.
Synonyms and how they differ
- grown-up
- Grown-up is a friendly word often used when talking to or about children, while adult is neutral and used in official writing.
- mature
- Mature describes behavior or development and can apply to a teenager, but adult mostly describes age.
- fully grown
- Fully grown stresses physical size and is used for animals and plants more than for people.
Opposites
Word family
- adulthood noun
- the time of being an adult
- adultery noun
- sex with someone who is not your husband or wife; an unrelated meaning despite the shared root
- adulthood noun
- the period of life after childhood
- adultlike adjective
- behaving like a grown-up
Commonly confused: adult or adolescent? adult or adulterate?
adult vs adolescent
An adolescent is a young person between childhood and adulthood, so it is not yet an adult.
adult vs adulterate
Adulterate means to make something impure by adding a worse substance, and it is not related in meaning to adult.
Practice
Which sentence uses adult as an adjective?
Choose one answer.
In the elephant sentence, adult describes the noun elephant. In the other sentences adult or adults is a noun, and 'an adult now' names the person.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “adult”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.