Word.ws English Dictionary

beyond one's years

beyond one's years prepositional phrase: extraordinary compared to most in one's age group; characteristic of an older person.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic, rare) Extraordinary compared to most in one's age group; characteristic of an older person.
    • I know now after raising a very bright and sensitive son myself, no parents could have handled me better than my own. I was intelligent beyond my years, but emotionally, ...1998, William Dales Hartt, Final Legacies, Nova Publishers, →ISBN, page 39
    • I am beyond my years, but I cannot keep count, as my Abacus runs to computer grail.2003, OBanya, Sickles Raised from Dust: And Other Poems

Origin of beyond one's years

Back-formation from wise beyond one's years.

Questions about beyond one's years

What does beyond one's years mean?
Beyond one's years means extraordinary compared to most in one's age group; characteristic of an older person.
What part of speech is beyond one's years?
Beyond one's years is a prepositional phrase.

Words near beyond one's years in the dictionary

  1. beyond measure
  2. beyond one's depth
  3. beyond one's ken
  4. beyond one's pay grade
  5. beyond one's wildest dreams
  6. beyond one's years
  7. beyond question
  8. beyond reason of a doubt
  9. beyond reasonable doubt
  10. beyond redemption
  11. beyond seas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beyond one's years (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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