childhood

From Middle English childhode, childhod, from Old English ċildhād (“childhood”), equivalent to child +‎ -hood. Compare dialectal Dutch kindheid (“childishness”), German Low German Kinnerheid (“childhood”), and German Kindheit (“childhood”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃaɪldhʊd/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -aɪldhʊd
• Hyphenation: child‧hood

childhood (countable and uncountable, plural childhoods)

1. (chiefly uncountable) The state of being a child.
   • 2013 September-October, Terrie Moffitt et al., “Lifelong Impact of Early Self-Control”, in American Scientist:

     To our own surprise, our 40-year study of 1,000 children revealed that childhood self-control strongly predicts adult success, in people of high or low intelligence, in rich or poor, and does so throughout the entire population, with a step change in health, wealth, and social success at every level of self-control.

2. The time during which one is a child, from between infancy and puberty.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood.

3. (by extension) The early stages of development of something.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     the childhood of our joy

• childhood on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

childhood

1. Alternative form of childhode