Word.ws English Dictionary

mid-life crisis

mid-life crisis noun: an emotional period of doubt and anxiety sometimes experienced by middle-aged people who realize that their life is already half over.

Noun

mid-life crisis (plural mid-life crises)

  1. An emotional period of doubt and anxiety sometimes experienced by middle-aged people who realize that their life is already half over.
    • Though we prefer the word "transition" in naming this period, our view of it owes much to his. The Mid-life Transition may be rather mild. When it involves considerable turmoil and disruption, we speak of a mid-life crisis.1978, Daniel J. Levinson, The Seasons of a Man's Life, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 26

Forms of mid-life crisis

pluralmid-life crises
alternative formmidlife crisis

Questions about mid-life crisis

What does mid-life crisis mean?
Mid-life crisis means an emotional period of doubt and anxiety sometimes experienced by middle-aged people who realize that their life is already half over.
What part of speech is mid-life crisis?
Mid-life crisis is a noun.
What is the plural of mid-life crisis?
The plural of mid-life crisis is mid-life crises.

Words near mid-life crisis in the dictionary

  1. Mid-Lent Sunday
  2. mid-level
  3. Mid-Levels
  4. mid-life
  5. mid-life crises
  6. mid-life crisis
  7. mid-lifer
  8. mid-lifers
  9. mid-major
  10. mid-majors
  11. mid-March

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mid-life crisis (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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