ADULTHOOD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does adulthood mean? 

• ADULTHOOD (noun)
  The noun ADULTHOOD has 2 senses:

1. the period of time in your life after your physical growth has stopped and you are fully developed

2. the state (and responsibilities) of a person who has attained maturity

  Familiarity information: ADULTHOOD used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ADULTHOOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The period of time in your life after your physical growth has stopped and you are fully developed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

adulthood; maturity

Hypernyms ("adulthood" is a kind of...):

time of life (a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state)

Meronyms (parts of "adulthood"):

teens (the time of life between the ages of 12 and 20)

mid-twenties; twenties (the time of life between 20 and 30)

mid-thirties; thirties; thirty-something (the time of life between 30 and 40)

forties; mid-forties (the time of life between 40 and 50)

fifties; mid-fifties (the time of life between 50 and 60)

legal age; majority (the age at which persons are considered competent to manage their own affairs)

drinking age (the age at which is legal for a person to buy alcoholic beverages)

voting age (the age at which a person is old enough to vote in public elections)

middle age (the time of life between youth and old age (e.g., between 40 and 60 years of age))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "adulthood"):

prime; prime of life (the time of maturity when power and vigor are greatest)

Derivation:

adult (any mature animal)

adult (a fully developed person from maturity onward)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state (and responsibilities) of a person who has attained maturity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("adulthood" is a kind of...):

matureness; maturity (state of being mature; full development)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "adulthood"):

manhood (the state of being a man; manly qualities)

parentage; parenthood (the state of being a parent)

muliebrity; womanhood (the state of being an adult woman)

Derivation:

adult (any mature animal)

adult (a fully developed person from maturity onward)

 Context examples 

A hepatocellular carcinoma that occurs during adulthood and has spread to other anatomic sites.

(Advanced Adult Hepatocellular Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

A benign or malignant lesion arising during adulthood.

(Adulthood Lesion, NCI Thesaurus)

These problems often start in late adolescence or early adulthood.

(Ankylosing Spondylitis, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease)

They can also start in the late teens or early adulthood.

(Dystonia, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

A person under the age of majority who has been granted the legal status of adulthood.

(Emancipated Minor, NCI Thesaurus)

A meningioma that occurs during adulthood.

(Adult Meningioma, NCI Thesaurus)

A malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor occurring during adulthood.

(Adult Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)

A grade II meningioma that occurs during adulthood.

(Adult Grade II Meningioma, NCI Thesaurus)

A grade III meningioma that occurs during adulthood.

(Adult Grade III Meningioma, NCI Thesaurus)

A melanoma that arises from leptomeningeal melanocytes and occurs in adulthood.

(Adult Leptomeningeal Melanoma, NCI Thesaurus)