Meaning & use
maturity
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Meanings
noununcountable
The condition of having grown up fully, or of showing sensible, balanced judgment and behavior for one's age.
Grammar: Not used with an or an: she showed great maturity, not a maturity.
Patterns
- emotional maturity
- maturity of something
- reach maturity
Handling the criticism calmly showed real maturity for a fifteen-year-old.
Oak trees take decades to reach maturity.
His maturity made him a natural choice to lead the team.
noununcountablefinance
The date on which a loan, bond, or insurance policy ends and the money owed must be paid back.
Grammar: Often used with at or on: the bond pays out at maturity.
Patterns
- at maturity
- on maturity
- maturity date
The investor will receive the full amount when the bond reaches maturity.
The loan has a maturity of five years.
Penalties apply if you withdraw before maturity.
Word forms
| plural | maturities |
|---|
Common combinations
- emotional maturity
- Raising a younger sibling gave her unusual emotional maturity.
- reach maturity
- Salmon return to the river once they reach maturity.
- sexual maturity
- Dogs of larger breeds reach sexual maturity later than small ones.
- maturity date
- Check the maturity date before you buy the certificate.
- mature beyond one's years
- The boy's maturity beyond his years surprised the teachers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- adulthood
- Adulthood names the stage of life after childhood, while maturity stresses the quality of being developed or sensible.
- wisdom
- Wisdom suggests deep understanding gained over time, whereas maturity can simply mean steady, grown-up conduct.
- ripeness
- Ripeness is mostly used for fruit and similar things being ready, and rarely for people.
Opposites
Word family
- mature adjective
- fully grown or sensible and grown-up in manner
- mature verb
- to become fully developed, or to reach the date a bond is due
- maturely adverb
- in a grown-up, sensible way
- immaturity noun
- the state of not being fully developed or sensible
- maturation noun
- the process of becoming mature
Commonly confused: maturity or majority?
maturity vs majority
Majority means the larger part of a group, or the age of legal adulthood; it does not describe emotional development.
Practice
The government bond will pay back its full value at ______ in 2035.
Choose one answer.
Maturity is the finance term for the date a bond is repaid. Adulthood and majority do not refer to repayment dates.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “maturity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.