young adult

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English

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Noun

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young adult (plural young adults)

  1. A person who has achieved the age of majority but whose character and personality are still developing as they gain experience.
    Hypernym: adult
    Coordinate terms: adolescent, teenager; kid; middle-ager, older adult
    Near-synonym: emerging adult
    Young adult actress Annie Jay wrote a book called Stars in Your Eyes, Feet on the Ground giving career advice for young adult actors.
  2. (publishing) An adolescent; a reader of young adult writing (YA).

Usage notes

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  • This is a nebulous concept and no fixed ages can be sensibly assigned to the term. However:
    • in psychology and medicine, age-ranges such as 18 to 40 or 15 to 30[1] are sometimes quoted.
    • in publishing, young adult novels are aimed at adolescents with an age-range of 12 to 18, and young adult writers are authors of these books, not teenage aspiring authors.

Translations

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See also

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Adjective

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young adult (comparative more young adult, superlative most young adult)

  1. (publishing) Pertaining to young adult writing.
    Young adult writer Jen Derbyshire just published her 50th paperback novel, the latest in an adventure series spanning fifteen years.

References

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Further reading

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