Meaning & use
puberty
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
The stage of life when a child's body changes and becomes capable of having children.
Grammar: Uncountable and usually without an article: reach puberty, go through puberty.
Patterns
- reach puberty
- go through puberty
- at puberty
Most children begin puberty between the ages of nine and fourteen.
The school nurse talked to the class about puberty.
Her voice changed when he reached puberty.
Common combinations
- reach puberty
- Girls often reach puberty earlier than boys.
- go through puberty
- He is going through puberty and growing fast.
- early puberty
- Doctors checked her for early puberty.
- onset of puberty
- The onset of puberty varies from child to child.
- before puberty
- The condition usually appears before puberty.
- hit puberty
- The kids got taller once they hit puberty.
Synonyms and how they differ
- adolescence
- Adolescence is the wider teenage period including social and emotional change, while puberty is the physical and hormonal part.
- pubescence
- Pubescence is a formal or medical word for the beginning of puberty and is rarely used in speech.
- coming of age
- Coming of age describes becoming an adult in a social sense and is not limited to bodily change.
Opposites
Word family
- pubescent adjective
- reaching or having reached puberty
- prepubescent adjective
- before puberty
- pubertal adjective
- relating to puberty
- adolescent noun
- a young person between childhood and adulthood
Commonly confused: puberty or adolescence?
puberty vs adolescence
Puberty is the body changing, while adolescence is the whole teenage stage, including social and emotional growth.
Practice
The biological changes that make a child's body able to reproduce are called ___.
Choose one answer.
Puberty names the physical and hormonal changes. Adolescence is the wider teenage period, which is the tempting alternative, while infancy is early childhood.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “puberty”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.